# Problem in writing the equation: missing delimiter

I tried a lot but unable to solve this equation.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\begin{document}

$$f\left\( x,y,\omega,\theta,\sigma x,\sigma y \right)=\frac{1}{2\pi\sigma x,\sigma y} exp\left\[\frac{-1}{2}\right\left(\left(\frac{x}{\sigma x}\right)^{2}\right)\left+\left(\left(\frac{y}{\sigma y}\right)^{2}\right)+j\omega\left(x \cos\theta + y \sin\theta\right)\right]$$

\end{document}


always showing

!Missing delimitter (.inserted).

• Welcome to TeX.SX! It's always better to provide a full example, with a \documentclass{}, the relevant packages and \begin{document}...\end{document} pair. – user31729 Nov 25 '14 at 5:47
• \left\( is wrong, it's \left(... ... oh, Harish already provided a solution – user31729 Nov 25 '14 at 5:49

## 2 Answers

Here is how I would typeset the equation:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

$$f(x,y,\omega,\theta,\sigma x,\sigma y) = \frac{e^{-1/2}}{2\pi\,\sigma x,\sigma y} \Bigl(\frac{x}{\sigma x}\Bigr)^{\mkern -2mu 2} \left[+\Bigl(\frac{y}{\sigma y}\Bigr)^{\mkern -2mu 2} + j\omega(x\cos\theta + y\sin\theta)\right]$$

\end{document}


or

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

$$f(x,y,\omega,\theta,\sigma x,\sigma y) = \frac{\exp(-1/2)}{2\pi\,\sigma x,\sigma y} \Bigl(\frac{x}{\sigma x}\Bigr)^{\mkern -2mu 2} \left[+\Bigl(\frac{y}{\sigma y}\Bigr)^{\mkern -2mu 2} + j\omega(x\cos\theta + y\sin\theta)\right]$$

\end{document}


Notice that with either approach you only need a single line.

You have used \left\( and \left\[ which should be \left( and \left[.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
$$f\left( x,y,\omega,\theta,\sigma x,\sigma y \right)=\frac{1}{2\pi\sigma x,\sigma y} \exp\left[\frac{-1}{2}\right]\left(\left(\frac{x}{\sigma x}\right)^{2}\right)\left[+\left(\left(\frac{y}{\sigma y}\right)^{2}\right)+j\omega\left(x \cos\theta + y \sin\theta\right)\right]$$
\end{document}


This looks better

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
$$\begin{split} f\bigl( x,y,\omega,\theta,\sigma x,\sigma y \bigr)&=\frac{1}{2\pi\sigma x,\sigma y} \exp\biggl[\frac{-1}{2}\biggr]\\ &\qquad\Bigl(\frac{x}{\sigma x}\Bigr)^{2}\Bigl[+\Bigl(\frac{y}{\sigma y}\Bigr)^{2}+j\omega\bigl(x \cos\theta + y \sin\theta\bigr)\Bigr] \end{split}$$
\end{document}


• @ Harish Kumar: you forgot the backslashin front of exp. – Bernard Nov 25 '14 at 11:06
• @HarishKumar -- unless i'm hallucinating, the two pairs of \left delimiters in your first sentence are the same, so i am confused. i did spot a \left+ in the original. – barbara beeton Nov 25 '14 at 16:02
• @barbarabeeton I was confused too thinking what that \left+ is doing there? I was uncertain of what to put and there is also a redundant + in the equation. So I am not sure of what the equation is. It is a mess IMO. :-) – user11232 Nov 25 '14 at 22:56