11

In Latex, in math mode, if I want to express summation over a range I can use the following expression \sum_{from}^{to}. I can do the same for the product.

What is the name of the symbol that does this for XOR or concatenation?

If I do:

\oplus_{i=0}^7

I don't get the i=0 and 7 parts below and above the symbol, respectively, but to the right instead, like this:

bulkxor

With summation (\sum_{i=0}^7), that is not the case - they appear below and below in the output:

bulksum

How can I make XOR, or concatenation (II) larger and with indices below and above the symbol?

Improve this question

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
19

You want to use \bigoplus instead of \oplus.

I've never seen concatenation done that way. Addition and XOR are commutative operations so it makes sense to sum over a set (or take the exclusive OR of a set). Concatenation is not like that. I think I would explicitly write out the concatenation. That said, you can use \bigparallel from the stmaryrd package.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{stmaryrd}
\newcommand*\concat{\mathbin{\|}}
\begin{document}
\[x_1\concat x_2\concat\dotsb\concat x_n\]
\[\bigparallel_{i=1}^n x_i\]
\end{document}

enter image description here

Improve this answer
4
  • I saw these guys using concatenation summation: schneier.com/skein.pdf, pages 17,18.
    – axel22
    Jun 14, 2011 at 9:25
  • @axel22: Interesting. I'd never seen that before. Let me update my answer.
    – TH.
    Jun 14, 2011 at 9:34
  • 2
    I don’t see why the non-commutativity of the concatenation should disqualify it for this notation. In functional programming, a reduction of character strings via concatenation is a well-defined operation, and defined in the same way as a sum. We’re not talking about sets here, we’re talking about (well-ordered) sequences.
    – Konrad Rudolph
    Jun 14, 2011 at 12:19
  • 2
    @Konrad: Fair enough. One might write $\sum_{x\in S}x$. A similar expression would be meaningless for concatenation. That's all I was saying. In this case, you're right that there's a canonical well order imposed by the indexing.
    – TH.
    Jun 14, 2011 at 12:39
4

The usual way to get a larger \oplus symbol that takes limits above and below in display math mode is with \bigoplus. However this symbol might appear too big; a not-so-large symbol can be obtained by

\newcommand{\bigxor}{\mathop{\mathchoice
  {\textstyle\bigoplus}{\textstyle\bigoplus}
  {\scriptstyle\bigoplus}{\scriptscriptstyle\bigoplus}}}

For a concatenation big symbol one can do a similar thing:

\newcommand{\bigconc}{\mathop{\mathpalette\bigconcinn\relax}}
\newcommand{\bigconcinn}[2]{%
  \vcenter{\hbox{$\bigconcchoose#1\bigconcsize|\mkern1mu\bigconcsize|$}}}
\newcommand{\bigconcchoose}[1]{\def\bigconcsize{}%
  \ifx#1\displaystyle
    \let\bigconcsize\Big
  \else
    \ifx#1\textstyle
      \let\bigconcsize\big
    \fi
  \fi#1}

Now \bigconc will behave like \sum:

\[ \bigconc_{i=0}^{3} X_{i} \]
Improve this answer
3

You can use the \DeclareMathOperator* command that defines operator with super/subscripts above/below itself:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\DeclareMathOperator*{\OPLUS}{\oplus}
\begin{document}
\[ \OPLUS^a_b \]
\end{document}
Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .