# How do I change the spacing for math operators?

I have defined my own math operator (for displaying the order of certain function sequences--this is not the "normal" Big-O notation, though) by:

\newcommand{\order}[1]{\ensuremath{\operatorname{o}\left({#1}\right)}}


This leads to pretty strange spacing:

How can I resolve this? Is there a better way to specify the operator?

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You mean the spacing between the “o” and the opening bracket? –  Caramdir Aug 25 '10 at 16:12

First, I think in general it is probably a better idea to use \DeclareMathOperator rather than a combination of \newcommand and \operatorname. That said, I think your problem is because you used \left(. It should be fixed if you insert \mathopen{} before the \left(. See also http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/1232/difference-between-big-and-bigl/1234#1234
Thank you! I do not know why I did not use \DeclareMathOperator in the first place for this instance. The link about spacing is also quite helpful. –  Bran the Blessed Aug 26 '10 at 17:47
Do you mean \mathopen and \mathclose? –  TH. Aug 26 '10 at 5:46