# Is there a way to \uppercase greeks?

Here's a sample code, which works for latin math, but not for greek math.

\documentclass{article}
\providecommand{\bigset}[1]{\ensuremath{\uppercase{#1}}}
\begin{document}
\bigset d :-)
\bigset\delta :-(
\end{document}


I can find no clue on whether it is possible to "hellenicize" this idea?

• Isn't it easier typing $D$ or $\Delta$? While the problem might be interesting, can you motivate it? – egreg Jan 24 '16 at 23:50
• your bigset would not uppercase any argument passed as a command name even if not greek eg \def\d{d} \bigset\d do you really need to uppercase math? if using textual greek one might expect \MakeUppercase to work but uppercase in math is rather rare (and complicated for math greek as tex classically only has partial alphabets where things look different so \alpha but no \Alpha you could uppercase \alpha to A but not if you need to lowercase back to alpha – David Carlisle Jan 24 '16 at 23:52
• @egreg it is! But for a reason too long to explain here, I need to renewcommand bigset at some point in my document and stop capitalizing, while re-inputting the same tex bits and pieces – Oskar Limka Jan 24 '16 at 23:53
• @David Carlisle thank you, I thought of using a Greek-language option where the whole uppercase alphabet is available, but that's a bit cumbersome, I was wondering if someone's thought of a simpler way. – Oskar Limka Jan 24 '16 at 23:55
• @egreg To be sure, I teach two courses involving loads of linear algebra, but one is in numerical analysis (where tradition wants matrices in uppercase) and the other in mechanics (where tradition likes matrices/tensors in bold lowercase). This trick avoids me having to retype the exercises and problem questions and doing time-consuming find-replaces. For now I avoid greeks for matrices in those shared exercises and problems. I hope this clarifies it. – Oskar Limka Jan 25 '16 at 0:03

Do it the hard way. However, I heartily recommend not using \ensuremath: put math symbols in math mode.

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand{\UCmath}[1]{%
\begingroup
\ucmathlist\MakeUppercase{#1}%
\endgroup
}

\newcommand{\ucmathlist}{%
\def\alpha{\mathrm{A}}%
\def\beta{\mathrm{B}}%
\let\gamma=\Gamma
\let\delta=\Delta
\def\epsilon{\mathrm{E}}%
\def\varepsilon{\mathrm{E}}%
\def\zeta{\mathrm{Z}}%
\def\eta{\mathrm{H}}%
\let\theta=\Theta
\let\vartheta=\Theta
\def\iota{\mathrm{I}}%
\def\kappa{\mathrm{K}}%
\let\lambda=\Lambda
\def\mu{\mathrm{M}}%
\def\nu{\mathrm{N}}%
\let\xi=\Xi
\let\pi=\Pi
\let\varpi=\Pi
\def\rho{\mathrm{P}}%
\def\varrho{\mathrm{P}}%
\let\sigma=\Sigma
\def\tau{\mathrm{T}}%
\let\upsilon=\Upsilon
\let\phi=\Phi
\let\varphi=\Phi
\def\chi{\mathrm{X}}%
\let\psi=\Psi
\let\omega=\Omega
}

\newcommand{\bigset}[1]{\ensuremath{\UCmath{#1}}}

\begin{document}

\bigset{d}

\bigset{\delta}

\bigset{\pi}

\bigset{\alpha}

\end{document}


• Thank you! (I always use math mode, but I kept the example brief.) – Oskar Limka Jan 25 '16 at 0:34