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up vote 12 down vote favorite

Right now, I am using \lvert,\rvert, and \mid to display

enter image description here

\documentclass[border=3pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
$\lvert x \rvert \mid y$
\end{document}

Is there a better way to do this?

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3  
Interesting issue. You could slight change the height of the divides with something like \newcommand{\Divides}{\mathbin{\big|}}, and then use $ \lvert x \rvert \Divides y $. – Peter Grill Feb 11 at 1:10
I think this notation is possibly very confusing. Why not define an new math operator: \DeclareMathOperator{\abs}{abs} so you would then write $\abs(x) \mid y$ – A.Ellett Feb 11 at 1:49
@A.Ellett You make a valid point. However, it would mean changing throughout the document just to satisfy one occurrence. – beethree Feb 11 at 2:21
2  
If the numbers are integer, x\mid y says exactly the same thing. – egreg Feb 11 at 9:31
@egreg yay math! Although I can see how, as a learning student, it could confuse someone (if it were a textbook we were talking about, for example). – Sean Allred Feb 11 at 9:36

4 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

Option 1

By making the \mid bigger (based on the given comments),

enter image description here

\documentclass[border=3pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\newcommand\abs[1]{\ensuremath{\lvert#1\rvert}}
\newcommand\divides{\ensuremath{\bigm|}}
\begin{document}
$\abs{x} \divides y$
\end{document}

Option 2

By making the font smaller locally, {\scriptstyle\lvert#1\rvert},

enter image description here

\documentclass[border=3pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\newcommand\abs[1]{\ensuremath{{\scriptstyle\lvert#1\rvert}}}
\begin{document}
$\abs{x} \mid y$
\end{document}

Option 3

Rephrasing the mathematical statement,

enter image description here

\documentclass[border=3pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\newcommand\abs[1]{\ensuremath{\lvert#1\rvert}}
\begin{document}
$ y \mod \abs{x} = 0$
\end{document}
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1  
The fact that x is made smaller than y makes this look off, IMO – Matthew Leingang Feb 11 at 1:41
1  
Instead of renaming \mid (first case) I would create a new command \newcommand{\divides}{\bigm|}, where \bigm automatically provides the spacing you are looking for. – Manuel Feb 11 at 2:09
I will make the \mid bigger. – beethree Feb 11 at 2:21
If only you removed those useless \ensuremath commands… – egreg Feb 11 at 9:30
@egreg: It can be regarded as a best practice. :-) – Click Me Feb 11 at 9:32
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up vote 6 down vote

I think this notation is possibly very confusing. Why not define an new math operator: 

\DeclareMathOperator{\abs}{abs}

so you would then write 

$\abs(x) \mid y$

enter image description here

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up vote 3 down vote

Yes, it looks too similar to \mid. The best solution I've been able to come up is to reorganize and avoid such constructions (whatever you do, it will look confusing), probably by spelling it out: ... \(\abs{x}\) divides \(y\)...

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This is immensly better than all the alternatives. – Mariano Suárez-Alvarez Feb 11 at 3:58
Come to think about it, what makes \abs{x} dividing y any different from x dividing y? (OK, yes, I've had such constructions, but there the abs{} meant size/order of a group/...) – vonbrand Feb 11 at 4:05
up vote 0 down vote

I have recently been lecturing on the Sylow theorems and related topics, which means that I am continually needing to say that the size of some group divides or is divisible by something. The solution I have adopted is to denote the size of a finite set by \#(G), not |G|.

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