Adding left/right bars to letters

Question

Is there an equivalent of the top/bottom bars you can get with \overbar, \underbar but for left and right bars? I would like to have a small vertical bar right next to some text in mathmode.

I would prefer existing solutions in some package but a custom macro/command is also fine.

Answer 1

Even though your question might have been answered already in the comments, here an example how one could use absolute values or at least the | symbol.

\documentclass{article}
% Should be in every document, if you write math 
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}

\begin{document}
\[
|a+b| \leq \left| a \right| + \lvert b \rvert 
\]

\[
\left\{ n \in \mathbb{N} \;\middle|\; \sum_{k=0}^n \binom nk \right\}
=
\left\{ 2^n \;\middle|\; \forall n \in \mathbb{N} \right\}
\]

\[
|x| =
\begin{cases}
x  &\mathrm{if}\ x \geq 0\\
-x &\mathrm{if}\ x  <  0
\end{cases}
\]
\end{document}

As daleif pointed out, they might not be the same, but I think as long as you choose one and stick with it, it shouldn't be a problem. I recommend using \left|, \middle| and \right|, because LaTeX will automaticly adjust the height of |, the prefixes will also work with brackets, as you can see in my second example.

So here the output:

For future works, you may find this site handy. Have Fun!