# eqnarray or equation for single-line equations?

Normally I would use , of course. But I got a huge file (more than two hundred pages) where many equations are formatted like this:

\begin{eqnarray}
a = b + 1 % no & here!
\end{eqnarray}


AFAICT the visual difference is minimal. Still, should I convert all this to ?

(I suspect that the bigger problem might be the missing & characters around the =. If I add them, I get exactly the same output as with $...$, which should be the right thing.)

I use the svmono document class, if that is important.

-
–  Marco Daniel Jul 28 '12 at 8:42
@MarcoDaniel Thanks, but that question is about a list of related equations, which I don't have here. –  WolframH Jul 28 '12 at 8:43
Use equation for single line equations (or $...$ for unnumbered ones) and never ever use eqnarray. –  egreg Jul 28 '12 at 8:46
@egreg: It seems to me your comment answers this question. Maybe you should put it as an answer!?! –  canaaerus Aug 19 '12 at 18:20

Use equation for single line equations (or $...$ for unnumbered ones) and never ever use eqnarray. See \eqnarray vs \align for more information.
This suggests that I convert all equations. However, the link and the documents linked from it and the answers do not seem to give any information for my specific question: single line, no alignment (i.e. no &). No source says anything bad (or good) about that (unless I missed something). So while your answer certainly is good general advice, I am not sure how it applies here. –  WolframH Sep 2 '12 at 20:41
@WolframH If you don't want to edit your document, fine. But you'll do yourself a favor using the right environment for each equation or group thereof. This doesn't include eqnarray. :) –  egreg Sep 2 '12 at 20:48