Minus sign in Table

Question

What is the correct way of doing a minus sign in a LaTeX Table? The minus sign I'm doing seems much longer than the minus sign in math mode.

Answer 1

A minus sign in a table should be typeset in math mode to get the proper size and spacing:

The amsmath package is only required for the line where \text is used.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}% only needed for last case where \text{} is used
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular} { l c }
    minus sign outside math mode (incorrect) & -5 \\
    minus sign inside math mode  & $-5$\\
    minus sign but not for a number  & $-$foo\\
    minus sign but not for a number  & $-\text{foo}$
\end{tabular}
\end{document}