Difference between flushright and raggedleft

Question

What is the difference between flushright and raggedleft?

Answer 1

\begin{flushright}...\end{flushright} is the environment form of \raggedleft. They are the equivalent of \begin{center}...\end{center} and \centering, respectively. Here's an example using the two:

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\listfiles\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\begin{flushright}\lipsum[2]\end{flushright}
\lipsum[3]

\newpage
\lipsum[4]
{\raggedleft\lipsum[5]\par}
\lipsum[6]
\end{document}

In particular, note the extra space around flushright.

Answer 2

The environments internally are based on a list (exactly a »trivlist«) with fixed list parameters. That's why they cause the extra vertical space before and behind that Will mentioned. The amount of this space is determined by the length \topsep. Regarding the center environment this can be very annoying when used to center float objects.