Automatically sized brackets in an align environment

Question

I want to have larger brackets on the outside and smaller brackets on the inside in something like this:

S(T(z))

which is usually achieved by S\left(T(z)\right)

However, I am also in the align environment and when I try and type set it as above, an error shows up. Is it not possible? WHat is a workaround?

Is the example in the beginning/middle of page 29 in https://ftp.acc.umu.se/mirror/CTAN/macros/latex/contrib/mathtools/mathtools.pdf what you look for? — mickep, Mar 07 '22 at 12:09

Denis · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-08T06:09:42.407

1

Use the bigl and bigr construct instead. My guess is that your left and right were not on the same line.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
    \usepackage[a4paper]{geometry}
    \usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\begin{align}
Q = \bigl(&T(z) + q +\\
    &A(w) \bigr)
\end{align}
\end{document}

edited Mar 08 '22 at 06:09

answered Mar 07 '22 at 11:17

Denis

5,267

they were on the same line – user71207 Mar 08 '22 at 04:24
@user71207 OK, but does my answer give a solution? – Denis Mar 08 '22 at 06:07
Yes, it does. Whats the difference between bigl/bigr and left/right, and why does the former work but latter not? – user71207 Mar 08 '22 at 06:21
1

@user71207 To be brief, bigland bigr do not have to be paired unlike the left right construct. They are way more flexible, as explained in many posts here. – Denis Mar 08 '22 at 06:23
1

@user71207 I meant paired on a single line. There are also a variety of sizes : big, Big, bigg, Bigg. – Denis Mar 08 '22 at 07:05
1

@user71207 -- Single line isn't always "good enough". In environments that are subdivided into cells, i.e., parts are separated by &, each cell is effectively an isolated environment, and matching \left ... \right are required to be in the same environment. This is a duplicate of Using \left( & \right) around amsmath's align delimiter (“&”) – barbara beeton Mar 11 '22 at 22:10

Automatically sized brackets in an align environment

1 Answers1