# Are there alternative methods to “_” for subscripting in math mode?

I'm currently writing some blog content on Ghost, which uses Markdown similar to the SE Network. Unfortunately however, when attempting to subscript in math mode i.e. $3_{x}$, the underscore is interpreted by Markdown as italicizing text, and prevents my math from showing up correctly.

Having already filed a support ticket, for the time being I was wondering if there is any other way to nicely subscript in math mode in LaTeX.

• You could also try escaping the Markdown character with a backslash: $3\_{x}. – ComFreek Sep 27 '15 at 10:37 ## 1 Answer _ is equal to \sb. Just use $3\sb{x}\$.

• And ^ is equal to \sp. – Manuel Sep 26 '15 at 21:22
• Or you can define your own with \let\whatever_ or \def\whatever{_} (in this last case, it's not equal, but just expands to _). – Manuel Sep 26 '15 at 21:40
• Yeah for some reason \sb had issues as well, so I ended up just writing a little macro in the script for the template that expands to _. Thanks for your help! – miradulo Sep 26 '15 at 21:41
• What problems did \sb give you? – Manuel Sep 26 '15 at 21:48
• Undefined control sequence, I suppose it is because I'm using a MathJax script? – miradulo Sep 26 '15 at 21:50