A symbol for the quotient of two objects

Question

One needs often a symbol to denote the quotient of two (algebraic) objects. (e.g. quotient by a subgroup, subring, submodule etc.). In simple cases people use A/B. But when both A,B are complicated to write, this doesn't look good. e.g. \mathcal{O}_{(V',0)}}/\mathcal{O}_{(V,0)}}

For some reasons people do not use just \frac{A}{B}. Is there some way to achieve the following:

$A$ raised a bit, then \Big/ then $B$ a bit lowered.

Answer 1

How about using \left, \right, and \raisebox?

\newcommand{\bigslant}[2]{{\raisebox{.2em}{$#1$}\left/\raisebox{-.2em}{$#2$}\right.}}

\begin{equation}
\bigslant{\mathcal{O}_{(V',0)}}{\mathcal{O}_{(V,0)}}
\end{equation}

which gives

The only problem is that I need to re-enter mathmode inside the \raiseboxes. Anyone know how to avoid that?

Answer 2

I give a very small amelioration which takes care of the different math styles.

% Source : http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/4624/a-symbol-for-the-quotient-of-two-objects

\documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article}
    \usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
    \usepackage{ucs}
    \usepackage{amsmath}
    \usepackage{amsfonts}
    \usepackage{amssymb}

    \newcommand\quotient[2]{
        \mathchoice
            {% \displaystyle
                \text{\raise1ex\hbox{$#1$}\Big/\lower1ex\hbox{$#2$}}%
            }
            {% \textstyle
                #1\,/\,#2
            }
            {% \scriptstyle
                #1\,/\,#2
            }
            {% \scriptscriptstyle  
                #1\,/\,#2
            }
    }

    \newcommand{\setA}{{\cal O}_{(V',0)}}
    \newcommand{\setB}{{\cal O}_{(V,0)}}

\begin{document}

One formula in one text : $\frac{4}{5} = \quotient{\setA}{\setB}$
and one formula alone...
\[
    \frac{4}{5} = \quotient{\setA}{\setB}
\]


What about quotient of quotients ?
\[
    \quotient{\left( \quotient{\setA}{\setB} \right)}{\left( \quotient{\setA}{\setB} \right)}
\]
Better like this ?
\[
    \quotient{\textstyle \left( \quotient{\setA}{\setB} \right)}{\textstyle \left( \quotient{\setA}{\setB} \right)}
\]

\end{document}

Answer 3

Something like:

\documentclass{article}

\def\quotient#1#2{%
    \raise1ex\hbox{$#1$}\Big/\lower1ex\hbox{$#2$}%
}

\begin{document}
\[
\quotient{\mathcal{O}_{(V',0)}}{\mathcal{O}_{(V,0)}}
\]
\end{document}

Update, here is a real plain example:

\def\quotient#1#2{%
    \raise1ex\hbox{$#1$}\Big/\lower1ex\hbox{$#2$}%
}

$$
\quotient{{\cal O}_{(V',0)}}{{\cal O}_{(V,0)}}
$$
\bye

Answer 4

If you want to invoke the Someone Else's Problem principle, there's also the faktor package, which ostensibly was designed to do what you want, and which implements using the AMS symbol \diagup. But IMHO the slash is a bit small.

For in-line expressions, you can also consider the nicefrac package, which makes both the "denominator" and "numerator" small.