# Ordered symbols list with units

I would like to create a symbols list using \makeglossaries, but, it has to be ordered and the symbols must have their respective units too. On the quest for a solution to my issue I came across two answers that contain what I want but both only have one of the desired outcomes.

1st- Symbols with units but no sorting (ode taken from glossaries: How to customize list of symbols with additional column for units?

    \documentclass{book}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[symbols,nogroupskip,nonumberlist,automake]{glossaries-extra}              % use glossaries-package
\usepackage{subfiles}

\setlength{\glsdescwidth}{15cm}

\newglossary[slg]{symbolslist}{syi}{syg}{Symbolslist} % create add. symbolslist

\glsaddkey{unit}{\glsentrytext{\glslabel}}{\glsentryunit}{\GLsentryunit}{\glsunit}{\Glsunit}{\GLSunit}

\makeglossaries                                   % activate glossaries-package

% ==== EXEMPLARY ENTRY FOR SYMBOLS LIST =========================================

\newglossaryentry{symb:Pi}{name=\ensuremath{\pi},
description={Geometrical value},
unit={},
type=symbolslist}

\newglossaryentry{height}{name=\ensuremath{h},
description={Height of tower},
unit={\si{m}},
type=symbolslist}

\newglossaryentry{energyconsump}{name=\ensuremath{P},
description={Energy consumption},
unit={\si{kW}},
type=symbolslist}

\newglossaryentry{Eficiency}{name=\ensuremath{\eta},
description={Useful portion of work},
unit={\si{}},
type=symbolslist}

\newglossarystyle{symbunitlong}{%
\setglossarystyle{long3col}% base this style on the list style
\renewenvironment{theglossary}{% Change the table type --> 3 columns
\begin{longtable}{lp{0.6\glsdescwidth}>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{2cm}}}%
{\end{longtable}}%
%
\renewcommand*{\glossaryheader}{%  Change the table header
\bfseries Simbolo & \bfseries Description & \bfseries Unit \\
\hline
\endhead}
\renewcommand*{\glossentry}[2]{%  Change the displayed items
\glstarget{##1}{\glossentryname{##1}} %
& \glossentrydesc{##1}% Description
& \glsunit{##1}  \tabularnewline
}
}

\begin{document}

\glsaddall

%\printglossary[type=\acronymtype,style=long]  % list of acronyms
\printglossary[type=symbolslist,style=symbunitlong,title={Lista de Símbolos}]   % list of symbols
% \printglossary[type=main]                     % main glossary

\end{document}


And the second one, that sorts but I can't add units to.

How to effectively use List of Symbols for a thesis?

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[symbols,nogroupskip,sort=none]{glossaries-extra}

\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={position}]{x}{\ensuremath{x}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={velocity}]{v}{\ensuremath{v}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={acceleration}]{a}{\ensuremath{a}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={time}]{t}{\ensuremath{t}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={force}]{F}{\ensuremath{F}}

\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\printunsrtglossary[type=symbols,style=long]

\chapter{Sample}
Reference symbols: $\gls{x}$, $\gls{v}$, $\gls{a}$, $\gls{t}$,
$\gls{F}$.

\end{document}


Really sorry to bother, I'm new in Latex and I've been stuck with this for a while now.

• How do you want the symbols ordered? (E.g. Latin then Greek, or ordered alphabetically by description.) You can add units to the second example. Just add them to the optional argument, e.g. \glsxtrnewsymbol[description={time},symbol={\si{s}}]{t}{\ensuremath{t}} or (with the unit key defined as per the first example) \glsxtrnewsymbol[description={time},unit={\si{s}}]{t}{\ensuremath{t}}. Aug 22, 2018 at 18:16
• @NicolaTalbot I would like to have them ordered in the following manner, Latin then Greek. I'll try to do as you said. Thank you very much. Aug 22, 2018 at 20:10
• @NicolaTalbot I added the optional argument to the second example (as it is the ordered one) but it just does not show the unit. With the second example, however, it completely ignores the 'glsxtrnewsymbol[description={time},unit={\si{s}}]{t}{\ensuremath{t}}' line. Aug 22, 2018 at 20:28

## 2 Answers

Your second example uses the long glossary style (set with style=long in the optional argument of \printunsrtglossary). This only shows the term (e.g. \ensuremath{x}) and the description (e.g. position) but it doesn't show any other information (except the location list, which isn't present in that example). You not only need to add the units but also provide a style which will show them.

Some of the predefined styles show the symbol field as well, so if you use this field to store the unit, then you can just use a style that shows the symbol. Table 15.1 in the glossaries user manual indciates which styles show the symbol.

For example,

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage{siunitx}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[symbols,nogroupskip,sort=none]{glossaries-extra}

\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={position},symbol={\si{m}}]{x}{\ensuremath{x}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={velocity},symbol={\si{\metre\per\second}}]{v}{\ensuremath{v}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={acceleration},symbol={\si{\metre\per\second\squared}}]{a}{\ensuremath{a}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={time},symbol={\si{s}}]{t}{\ensuremath{t}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={force},symbol={\si{N}}]{F}{\ensuremath{F}}

\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\printunsrtglossary[type=symbols,style=long4col]

\chapter{Sample}
Reference symbols: $\gls{x}$, $\gls{v}$, $\gls{a}$, $\gls{t}$,
$\gls{F}$. Reference unit: $\glssymbol{v}$.

\end{document}


This produces:

This actually has four columns, but the fourth is empty as there's no location list. The \glssymbol command works like \gls but displays the symbol value (unit, in this case).

If you'd rather have a custom unit key, instead of using the provided symbol key, you can add one as in your first example. There are two commands that can add a new key: \glsaddkey and \glsaddstoragekey. It depends whether you want to use a command like \glssymbol in the above example. If you do, then you need:

\glsaddkey{unit}{}{\glsentryunit}{\Glsentryunit}{\glsunit}{\Glsunit}{\GLSunit}


(The case-changing commands don't make much sense for units, but the syntax requires them.) If you only need the unit to show in the list of symbols then you can do:

\glsaddstoragekey{unit}{}{\glsentryunit}


You also need to use \glsnoexpandfields to avoid problems caused by expansion.

You can use the glossary style in your first example, but it ought to use \glsentryunit instead of \glsunit:

\newglossarystyle{symbunitlong}{%
\setglossarystyle{long3col}% base this style on the list style
\renewenvironment{theglossary}{% Change the table type --> 3 columns
\begin{longtable}{lp{\glsdescwidth}>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{2cm}}}%
{\end{longtable}}%
\renewcommand*{\glossaryheader}{%  Change the table header
\bfseries Symbol & \bfseries Description & \bfseries Unit\\\hline
\endhead}%
\renewcommand*{\glossentry}[2]{%  Change the displayed items
\glstarget{##1}{\glossentryname{##1}} %
& \glossentrydesc{##1}% Description
& \glsentryunit{##1}  \tabularnewline
}%
}


The width of the description column is given by \glsdescwidth. You can change this if it's the wrong size. For example:

\setlength{\glsdescwidth}{.5\textwidth}


which makes it half the available text width or you can use an absolute value:

\setlength{\glsdescwidth}{3in}


Alternatively, you can just change all the columns to l if you have short descriptions:

 \renewenvironment{theglossary}%
{\begin{longtable}{lll}}%
{\end{longtable}}%


Complete example:

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage{siunitx}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[symbols,nogroupskip,sort=none]{glossaries-extra}

% new keys must be defined before use
\glsaddstoragekey{unit}{}{\glsentryunit}
\glsnoexpandfields

\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={position},unit={\si{m}}]{x}{\ensuremath{x}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={velocity},unit={\si{\metre\per\second}}]{v}{\ensuremath{v}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={acceleration},unit={\si{\metre\per\second\squared}}]{a}{\ensuremath{a}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={time},unit={\si{s}}]{t}{\ensuremath{t}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={force},unit={\si{N}}]{F}{\ensuremath{F}}

\newglossarystyle{symbunitlong}{%
\setglossarystyle{long3col}% base this style on the list style
\renewenvironment{theglossary}{% Change the table type --> 3 columns
\begin{longtable}{lp{\glsdescwidth}>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{2cm}}}%
{\end{longtable}}%
%
\renewcommand*{\glossaryheader}{%  Change the table header
\bfseries Symbol & \bfseries Description & \bfseries Unit\\\hline
\endhead}%
\renewcommand*{\glossentry}[2]{%  Change the displayed items
\glstarget{##1}{\glossentryname{##1}} %
& \glossentrydesc{##1}% Description
& \glsentryunit{##1}  \tabularnewline
}%
}

\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\printunsrtglossary[type=symbols,style=symbunitlong]

\chapter{Sample}
Reference symbols: $\gls{x}$, $\gls{v}$, $\gls{a}$, $\gls{t}$,
$\gls{F}$.

\end{document}


The list of symbols looks like:

This deals with how to display the units in the list of symbols, but the ordering is performed manually by defining each symbol in the desired order. If you want to automatically order first by Latin and then by Greek, you need to use an extra tool. The best one for this task is bib2gls because it recognises Greek commands such as \alpha, but for this you need to define all your symbols in a .bib file.

For example, symbols.bib:

% Encoding: UTF-8

@symbol{alpha,
unit= {\si{\radian\per\second\squared}},
name = {\ensuremath{\alpha}},
description = {angular acceleration}
}

@symbol{x,
unit = {\si{m}},
name = {\ensuremath{x}},
description = {position}
}

@symbol{v,
unit = {\si{\metre\per\second}},
name = {\ensuremath{v}},
description = {velocity}
}

@symbol{a,
unit = {\si{\metre\per\second\squared}},
name = {\ensuremath{a}},
description = {acceleration}
}

@symbol{t,
unit = {\si{s}},
name = {\ensuremath{t}},
description = {time}
}

@symbol{F,
unit = {\si{N}},
name = {\ensuremath{F}},
description = {force}
}


The document:

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage{siunitx}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[record,% using bib2gls
symbols % create list of symbols
]{glossaries-extra}

% new keys must be defined before \GlsXtrLoadResources
\glsaddstoragekey{unit}{}{\glsentryunit}

\GlsXtrLoadResources[
src={symbols}, % data in symbols.bib
sort-field={name}, % sort by name field
sort={letter-nocase}, % case-insensitive letter sort
type=symbols % put these terms in the symbols list
]

% Define new glossary style

\newglossarystyle{symbunitlong}{%
\setglossarystyle{long3col}% base this style on the list style
\renewenvironment{theglossary}{% Change the table type --> 3 columns
\begin{longtable}{lp{\glsdescwidth}>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{2cm}}}%
{\end{longtable}}%
%
\renewcommand*{\glossaryheader}{%  Change the table header
\bfseries Symbol & \bfseries Description & \bfseries Unit\\\hline
\endhead}%
\renewcommand*{\glossentry}[2]{%  Change the displayed items
\glstarget{##1}{\glossentryname{##1}} %
& \glossentrydesc{##1}% Description
& \glsentryunit{##1}  \tabularnewline
}%
}

\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\printunsrtglossary[type=symbols,style=symbunitlong]

\chapter{Sample}
Reference symbols: $\gls{x}$, $\gls{v}$, $\gls{a}$, $\gls{t}$,
$\gls{F}$ and $\gls{alpha}$.

\end{document}


If the document is called test.tex then the document build is:

pdflatex test
bib2gls test
pdflatex test


(If you need help integrating this with your text editor, see Incorporating makeglossaries or makeglossaries-lite or bib2gls into the document build.)

The sort=letter-nocase option performs a case-insensitive character sort, so the Latin characters will naturally end up before the Greek characters. The result is:

If you prefer to just use the long4col style, then the fourth column will now contain the location lists (where the term was used in the document). For example:

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage{siunitx}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[record,% using bib2gls
symbols % create list of symbols
]{glossaries-extra}

\GlsXtrLoadResources[
src={symbols}, % data in symbols.bib
sort-field={name}, % sort by name field
sort={letter-nocase}, % case-insensitive letter sort
type=symbols, % put these terms in the symbols list
field-aliases={unit=symbol}% convert unit key to symbol
]

\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\printunsrtglossary[type=symbols,style=long4col]

\chapter{Sample}
Reference symbols: $\gls{x}$, $\gls{v}$, $\gls{a}$, $\gls{t}$,
$\gls{F}$ and $\gls{alpha}$. Unit for $\gls{v}$: $\glssymbol{v}$.

\end{document}


The option field-aliases={unit=symbol} makes bib2gls treat the custom unit field as though it was actually the symbol field, so there's no need to change the symbols.bib file. (Without this alias, bib2gls will ignore the unit field, since the unit key is no longer defined in the document.)

You can omit the location list with either the nonumberlist option. For example:

\usepackage[record,symbols,nonumberlist]{glossaries-extra}


or

\printunsrtglossary[type=symbols,style=long4col,nonnumberlist]


Alternatively, you can use save-locations=false in the resource options:

\GlsXtrLoadResources[
src={symbols}, % data in symbols.bib
sort-field={name}, % sort by name field
sort={letter-nocase}, % case-insensitive letter sort
type=symbols, % put these terms in the symbols list
field-aliases={unit=symbol},% convert unit key to symbol
save-locations=false % don't save location lists
]


The glossaries-extra package now comes with a supplementary package glossary-longextra that provides additional glossary styles that use the longtable environment. These are more flexible than the long styles provided with the base glossaries package, and so are easier to adjust. There are samples of each of the longextra styles in the glossaries gallery. (If glossary-longextra.sty isn't found, try upgrading your glossaries-extra installation.)

For example:

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage{siunitx}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[record,% using bib2gls
symbols, % create list of symbols
stylemods={longextra} % load glossary-longextra.sty
]{glossaries-extra}

\GlsXtrLoadResources[
src={symbols}, % data in symbols.bib
sort-field={name}, % sort by name field
sort={letter-nocase}, % case-insensitive letter sort
type=symbols, % put these terms in the symbols list
field-aliases={unit=symbol},% convert unit key to symbol
save-locations=false % don't save location lists
]

% change column headers:
\renewcommand{\entryname}{Symbol}
\renewcommand{\symbolname}{Unit}

\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\printunsrtglossary[type=symbols,style=long-name-desc-sym]

\chapter{Sample}
Reference symbols: $\gls{x}$, $\gls{v}$, $\gls{a}$, $\gls{t}$,
$\gls{F}$ and $\gls{alpha}$. Unit for $\gls{v}$: $\glssymbol{v}$.

\end{document}


This uses the long-name-desc-sym style that has the name in the first column, the description in the second column and the symbol in the third column. The header text for the name and symbol columns are given by the language-sensitive commands \entryname and \symbolname. These are redefined in the above example. This style doesn't show the location list, so I've instructed bib2gls to not bother saving the locations (with save-locations=false).

The column alignments can be changed by redefining \glslongextraNameAlign, for the name column, and \glslongextraSymbolAlign, for the symbol column. For example:

\renewcommand{\glslongextraNameAlign}{c}
\renewcommand{\glslongextraSymbolAlign}{r}


If you want a different column ordering, you can just use one of the other styles. For example, the long-name-sym-desc has the name in the first column, the symbol in the second column and the description in the third column.

• How to change the order of columns? For example, the units are to come before the description.
– Diaa
Aug 7, 2020 at 14:55
– K.J.
Jan 20, 2021 at 19:27

@Nicola Talbot Thank you for the excellent answer. It worked quite nicely! Maybe as a small extension for the last example. If you have multiple lists and don't want to make changes to all of them, you can also adjust the glossaries-extra styles as in the previous examples and define a new style based on them. You simply have more options with glossaries-extra, e.g.:

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage{siunitx}

\usepackage[abbreviations, % create list of abbreviations
symbols, % create list of symbols
nomain, % omit main glossary
nopostdot, % remove dot at the end of entry
nonumberlist, % don't show numbers where referenced
stylemods={longextra} % load glossary-longextra.sty
]{glossaries-extra}

% new keys must be defined before use
\glsaddstoragekey{unit}{}{\glsentryunit}
\glsnoexpandfields

\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={position},unit={\si{m}}]{x}{\ensuremath{x}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={velocity},unit={\si{\metre\per\second}}]{v}{\ensuremath{v}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={acceleration},unit={\si{\metre\per\second\squared}}]{a}{\ensuremath{a}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={time},unit={\si{s}}]{t}{\ensuremath{t}}
\glsxtrnewsymbol[description={force},unit={\si{N}}]{F}{\ensuremath{F}}

\newglossarystyle{long-sym-desc-unit}{%
\setglossarystyle{long-name-desc-sym}% base this style on the list style
% change column headers:
\renewcommand{\entryname}{Symbol}
\renewcommand{\symbolname}{Unit}
\renewcommand*{\glossentry}[2]{%  Change the displayed items
\glstarget{##1}{\glossentryname{##1}} %
& \glossentrydesc{##1} % Description
& \glsentryunit{##1} % Unit
\tabularnewline
}%
}

\begin{document}

\printglossary[type=symbols,title=List of Symbols,style=long-sym-desc-unit]

\chapter{Sample}
Reference symbols: $\gls{x}$, $\gls{v}$, $\gls{a}$, $\gls{t}$,
$\gls{F}$ and $\gls{alpha}$. Unit for $\gls{v}$: $\glssymbol{v}$.

\end{document}