math-modenumberingtypography
Assume I wish to refer to the i-th object, or the n-th function out of some set, where i and n are letters and not numbers (as in "Multiply the $j$th row with the $i$th column and store the result in the $k$th memory cell, where $k=i+j$")
How do you suggest to write it?
$n$th is just confusing, $n$-th seems weird, and $n^{\text{th}}$, which is my current choice, is (pardon me) simply ugly.
Any suggestions?
You should not use math, when it is normal text. Use \textsuperscript instead: 2\textsuperscript{nd}. You can also define a shortcut for this, e.g.
\newcommand{\ts}{\textsuperscript}
Then you could use 2\ts{nd} in the text.
Edit:
An even nicer solution is to load the package nth with the option super and use the \nth command:
\usepackage[super]{nth}
\nth{1}, \nth{2}, \nth{3}, \nth{4}
In order for you to reference the counter like that you need to use \refstepcounter. This steps the counter, as well as telling LaTeX to use the supplied counter for the following reference.
Then you need to replace the \label's. They need to address directly to the counter. Therefore your example would be:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array} %don't know why this is needed; get csname error otherwise
% automatically number examples throughout document
\newcounter{exno}
\newenvironment{examples}
{
\begin{flushleft}
\begin{tabular}{>{(\refstepcounter{exno}\theexno)}rl}
}
{
\end{tabular}
\end{flushleft}
}
\begin{document}
\section{Foo}
Here are some numbered example sentences.
\begin{examples}
\label{row1} &Content of row 1 \\
\label{row2} &Content of row 2
\end{examples}
Now I want to get a 1 here: \ref{row1}. I want to get a 2 here: \ref{row2}.
\end{document}
This will produce:
Added: This also works by linking to the row by loading hyperref package.
Best Answer
In my experience
$n$this most widely used (like here). Personally I don't think it's ugly compared to the other two options and I think it's quite readable.