# What's a good way to write “x does not divide y”?

The way I currently do it is $x \not | y$, which looks awful. There's got to be something better available.

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Did you have a look at texdoc symbols? –  Jukka Suomela Oct 23 '10 at 22:22
I usually prefer “x does not divide y” (at least in text). Also, have a look at “How to look up a math symbol?” for ideas how you can easily find a particular symbol. –  Caramdir Oct 23 '10 at 22:52
@Caramdir: thanks! I knew about Detexify, but wasn't sure I could draw the symbol in the right orientation. But Detexify finds it in the other orientation as well. Fantastic. –  Qiaochu Yuan Oct 23 '10 at 22:54

$x\nmid y$ saves the day.

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Thanks, Harald! For some reason I thought I had tried this already. –  Qiaochu Yuan Oct 23 '10 at 22:40
Remember that \nmid is not defined in amsmath. amssymb is required for \nmid. –  4ae1e1 Nov 7 '13 at 20:14

An alternative to \nmid is to use the \centernot command from the centernot package. The resulting \centernot\mid symbol aligns perfectly with \mid and has a more pronounced slash than \nmid:

(On the right, the image shows how the commands behave in sub/superscript.)

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\centernot is my favourite :) –  Grzegorz Wierzowiecki Feb 8 '12 at 19:04

Another good looking (best to me) and easy option is to use the command \notdivides from the mathabx package. The code

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathabx}
\begin{document}
$\prod_{a \notdivides b}^{a \notdivides b} a \notdivides b$
\end{document}


creates the output

The negating line is longer than \nmid's but shorter than \centernot's.

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$x \mod{y} \neq 0$ ;)

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That's a programmer's answer. Mathematicians would probably write it $x \neq 0 (\mathrm{mod} y)$ –  Novelocrat Oct 25 '10 at 2:53
We'd both be wrong in an algebraist's eyes because a congruence is technically in order: $x \ncong 0 \left( \mathrm{mod} y\right)$. Thanks for pointing that out. –  everybodyelse Oct 25 '10 at 4:34
The TeXnically correct way to do either of those is $x \ncong 0 \pmod{y} :) – Ryan Reich Nov 21 '10 at 8:59 One possibility to assert, in symbols, that "a divides b" would be to use the MnSymbol package and then use $a \divides b$ (or $a \ndivides b\$ for doesn't divide).

As I am typing a good deal of ring theory, I'm using those all the time.

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