math-operatorssymbolstables
I'm making a data table and need to include my error bars with my data. $\pm$ works great if the upper and lower bounds are the same, however, several of my data points has a different upper limit than lower. In papers I've read, I've seen plenty of uncertainties expressed as plus x minus y stacked on top of one another with the $\pm$ sign.
Could someone tell me how to typeset such a thing?
I'm using a journal-specific document type (aastex) and the deluxetable coding.
I am not too sure what font to use for the internal + and -, so I just used \hbox{\texttt{+}}. In TeX, each character has a \mathcode, describing its behavious in maths. All of them lie between "0000 and "7FFF (in hexadecimal), except the special mathcode "8000, which makes the character act like an active character. Within the group which \bra, \ket and \braket define, I get + and - to be active and expand to \braket@inner@minus and \braket@inner@plus.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{braket}
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\braket@inner@minus}{\hbox{\texttt{-}}}
\newcommand{\braket@inner@plus}{\hbox{\texttt{+}}}
\begingroup
\catcode`\-=13\relax %active
\catcode`\+=13\relax %active
\@firstofone{\endgroup %end the local changes to catcodes.
\newcommand\braket@inner@defs{%
\edef\restore@mathcode{%
\mathcode`\noexpand +=\the\mathcode`+%
\mathcode`\noexpand -=\the\mathcode`-%
}%
\mathcode`\+="8000\relax
\mathcode`\-="8000\relax
\def+{\begingroup\restore@mathcode\braket@inner@plus\endgroup}%
\def-{\begingroup\restore@mathcode\braket@inner@minus\endgroup}%
}%
}
% old definition:
% \newcommand{\bra}[1]{\mathinner {\langle {#1}|}}
% new definition:
\renewcommand{\bra}[1]{\mathinner {\langle \braket@inner@defs {#1}|}}
\renewcommand{\ket}[1]{\mathinner {|\braket@inner@defs{#1}\rangle }}
\renewcommand{\braket}[1]{\mathinner {\langle \braket@inner@defs {#1}\rangle }}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\[
\bra{++--}A^\dag A\ket{-+-+} = \braket{++--|A^\dag A|-+-+} = \cdots
\]
However,
\[
\bra{++}(A+B)\ket{--} \neq \braket{++|(A+B)|--}
\]
\end{document}
I once proposed the following definitions
\newcommand\varpm{\mathbin{\vcenter{\hbox{%
\oalign{\hfil$\scriptstyle+$\hfil\cr
\noalign{\kern-.3ex}
$\scriptscriptstyle({-})$\cr}%
}}}}
\newcommand\varmp{\mathbin{\vcenter{\hbox{%
\oalign{$\scriptstyle({+})$\cr
\noalign{\kern-.3ex}
\hfil$\scriptscriptstyle-$\hfil\cr}%
}}}}
Example
\documentclass{article}
\newcommand\varpm{\mathbin{\vcenter{\hbox{%
\oalign{\hfil$\scriptstyle+$\hfil\cr
\noalign{\kern-.3ex}
$\scriptscriptstyle({-})$\cr}%
}}}}
\newcommand\varmp{\mathbin{\vcenter{\hbox{%
\oalign{$\scriptstyle({+})$\cr
\noalign{\kern-.3ex}
\hfil$\scriptscriptstyle-$\hfil\cr}%
}}}}
\begin{document}
$a\varpm b\varmp c$
\end{document}
Best Answer
Do you mean something like
(I've been asked about this for
siunitx, but have never really worked out what it actually means or a good interface for an 'automated' approach.)