# Fixing alignment in equations

I wish to get a more typical alignment (I hope this obvious) than what I am getting with the following code:

$\hat\delta = \left \{ \begin{array}{lr} \hat\delta(q_i, \epsilon) &= q_i \\ \hat\delta(q_i, ax) &= \hat\delta(\delta(q_i, a), x) : a\in\Sigma, x\in\Sigma^* \end{array} \right.$


This produces:

After seeing the above picture, I believe it is obvious that I wish to move the = sign and the q_i over to the left in the alignment. How can I achieve this?

Thanks for all the help!

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Make your {lr} alignment {ll}, or else use the align environment of amsmath. –  Steven B. Segletes Jan 28 '14 at 15:28
Thanks! That did it! What do both of those code segments do? –  CodeKingPlusPlus Jan 28 '14 at 15:29
They define the alignment of the columns in your array: l = left, r = right –  Thruston Jan 28 '14 at 15:31
The introduction of & into the array environment are column delimiters. Since you have one &, it means you have two columns. The {ll} specifier to the environment means left-align the two columns. The way you had it, the first column was left aligned, while the second was right-aligned. The other alignment is a c for center-alignment. –  Steven B. Segletes Jan 28 '14 at 15:31

I don't think the equals signs should be aligned, so a simple cases environment suffices. However, I add also the “aligned” version.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}
\noindent
First attempt, like I would do it; there's
no need to align the equals signs:
$\hat\delta = \begin{cases} \hat\delta(q_i, \epsilon) = q_i, \\ \hat\delta(q_i, ax) = \hat\delta(\delta(q_i, a), x), & a\in\Sigma,\ x\in\Sigma^* \end{cases}$
Second attempt, aligning the equals signs:
$\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2} \hat\delta = \left\{ \begin{array}{@{}l@{}ll@{}} \hat\delta(q_i, \epsilon) &{}= q_i, \\ \hat\delta(q_i, ax) &{}= \hat\delta(\delta(q_i, a), x), & a\in\Sigma,\ x\in\Sigma^* \end{array} \right.$
\end{document}


-

Another possibility is

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}

\begin{equation*}
\hat\delta
= \left\{
\begin{aligned}
\hat\delta(q_{i}, \epsilon)
&= q_{i} \\
\hat\delta(q_{i}, ax)
&= \hat\delta(\delta(q_{i}, a),x)
\qquad \text{for } a \in \Sigma, x \in \Sigma^{\ast}
\end{aligned}
\right.
\end{equation*}
or
\begin{equation*}
\hat\delta
= \left\{
\begin{alignedat}{2}
&\hat\delta(q_{i}, \epsilon)
&&= q_{i} \\
&\hat\delta(q_{i}, ax)
&&= \hat\delta(\delta(q_{i}, a),x)
\qquad \text{for } a \in \Sigma, x \in \Sigma^{\ast}
\end{alignedat}
\right.
\end{equation*}

\end{document}


-

Using the cases or the align* environment would give a better spacind around the = sign. For the solution with align*, loading the empheq package with overload option allows a simpler syntax:

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}

\begin{document}

\begin{align*}[left = {\hat\delta =\empheqlbrace}]
\hat\delta(q_i, \epsilon) &= q_i \\
\hat\delta(q_i, ax) &= \hat\delta(\delta(q_i, a), x) : a\in\Sigma, x\in\Sigma^*
\end{align*}

$\hat\delta = \begin{cases} \hat\delta(q_i, \epsilon)= q_i \\ \hat\delta(q_i, ax)= \hat\delta(\delta(q_i, a), x) : a\in\Sigma, x\in\Sigma^* \end{cases}$

\end{document}


Result:

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