LaTeX provides commands for putting lines, braces, and arrows over or under math material.
\underline{math}
¶Underline math. For example: \underline{x+y}
.
The line is always completely below the text, taking account of
descenders, so in \(\underline{y}\)
the line is lower than in
\(\underline{x}\)
. As of approximately 2019, this command
and others in this section are robust; before that, they were fragile
(see \protect
).
The package ulem
(https://ctan.org/pkg/uelem) does
text mode underlining and allows line breaking as well as a number of
other features. See also \hrulefill
& \dotfill
for
producing a line for such things as a signature or placeholder.
\overline{math}
¶Put a horizontal line over math. For example: \overline{x+y}
.
This differs from the accent command \bar
(see Math accents).
\underbrace{math}
¶Put a brace under math. For example:
(1-\underbrace{1/2)+(1/2}-1/3)
.
You can attach text to the brace as a subscript (_
) or
superscript (^
) as here:
\begin{displaymath} 1+1/2+\underbrace{1/3+1/4}_{>1/2}+ \underbrace{1/5+1/6+1/7+1/8}_{>1/2}+\cdots \end{displaymath}
The superscript appears on top of the expression, and so can look unconnected to the underbrace.
\overbrace{math}
¶Put a brace over math. For example:
\overbrace{x+x+\cdots+x}^{\mbox{\(k\) times}}
.
\overrightarrow{math}
¶Put a right arrow over math. For example:
\overrightarrow{x+y}
.
\overleftarrow{math}
¶Put a left arrow over math. For example:
\overleftarrow{a+b}
.
The package mathtools
(https://ctan.org/pkg/mathtools)
adds an over- and underbracket, as well as some improvements on the
braces.