# style: n×n-matrix

 Writing about $n\times n$-matrices like this gives bad spacing.


What's the correct way?

• Don't use the hyphen – and no capital M. A simple word space is enough. – Bernard Nov 4 '18 at 21:43
• Sorry for the capital M mistake. I updated the question. – quiliup Nov 4 '18 at 21:48
• you are right. The English literature I scanned it was written without a hyphen. BUT: Every German book I checked used the hyphen. Unfortunately with bad spacing... take a look – quiliup Nov 4 '18 at 22:01
• Have you tried $n{\times}n$-matrices? (The curly braces change the math-status of \times from math-rel to math-ord.) – Mico Nov 4 '18 at 22:15
• I'd find bad the spacing with $n{\times}n$. Why should it be different from when you write $m+n$? – egreg Nov 4 '18 at 22:56

I think you have two main options:

• Don't use a hyphen. (This was already mentioned by @Bernard in an earlier comment.)

• Write $n{\times}n$. This converts the math-status of \times from relational-operator atom to ordinary atom, resulting in no extra whitespace around $\times$.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Writing about $n\times n$ matrices like this gives ok spacing.

Writing about $n\times n$-matrices like this gives bad spacing.

Writing about $n{\times}n$-matrices like this gives ok spacing.
\end{document}


\documentclass{article}%

\begin{document}

$m{\times}n\mkern1.5mu$-Matrix

$(m{,}n)$-Matrix

\end{document}


• It is good but a bit strange. – user156344 Nov 5 '18 at 7:17
• What's strange? – Bernard Nov 5 '18 at 9:35