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What is the correct way to make the "does not divide" symbol in plain LaTeX 2e?

I'm talking about the symbol that is a vertical bar with a slash through it. I prefer not to install AMS or other packages, but instead to use plain LaTeX.

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Have a look at “How to look up a math symbol?” for ideas how you can easily find a particular symbol. – Caramdir Aug 9 '11 at 22:10
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Aug 9 '11 at 21:58

4 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

try this: 

$x\nmid y$

it's been known to 'save the day'.

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That doesn't work in plain LaTeX. Do you know what package must be loaded to make it work? I tried \usepackage{amsfonts} but that doesn't work. And I still prefer a plain LaTeX solution. – user448810 Aug 5 '11 at 22:33
I got \nmid working with \usepackage{amssymb}. – user448810 Aug 5 '11 at 22:46
up vote 7 down vote

Detexify is amazingly helpful in finding any symbol.

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up vote 3 down vote

Using \not with | works with plain LaTeX:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
$2 \not| \;3 $
\end{document}

The symbols \\, and \: and \; create varying degrees of space if the symbols get too close.

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I wonder why the \not introduces so much space. – Dylan Moreland Jun 22 '12 at 1:11
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I'm not sure which space you're talking about but try this: $2 \!\!\not| \,3 $. The \! is negative space to get things closer together on the right and \, will reduce space on the right – DJP Jun 22 '12 at 1:26
Oh, I didn't think you'd come back to this! Thanks very much. I just meant that while a|b is nice and compact, a\not|b puts a strange amount of space between a and |. – Dylan Moreland Jun 22 '12 at 1:28
I don't know why \not has so much extra space but if I had to guess it might be because \not can be used in conjunction with a lot of other symbols which are wider than | [eg \not\in or \not\subset]. So some combinations will look better than others depending on the symbol width being negated. – DJP Jun 22 '12 at 1:48
up vote 1 down vote

To minimize used packages you can do this:
\newcommand{\ndiv}{\hspace{-4pt}\not|\hspace{2pt}}
From then on \ndiv will add the sign with appropriate spaces before and after.

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If the font size changes, this can cause a lot of headache. At least you can opt for units like ex,em but still it would not be robust enough to be used elsewhere. – percusse Nov 27 '12 at 1:11

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