Underscores in words (text)

Question

How can I produce the text Word_one_two in LaTeX?

I tried:

Samp\_Dist\_Corr

But, it doesn't quite look right. Also, I want it in the typewriter font, so actually, I'm doing:

\texttt{Samp\_Dist\_Corr}

I find it looks a bit like the underscore is merging in to the bottom of the "D", but maybe it's just because of the typewriter D?

Answer 1

You may prefer the character from the tt font:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\texttt{Samp\_Dist\_Corr}

\verb|Samp_Dist_Corr|

\texttt{Samp\char`_Dist\char`_Corr}

\end{document}

Or probably better add \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} then all the above forms will use the character from the font.

Answer 2

You can use \textunderscore also.

\documentclass{article}
%
\begin{document}
Samp\textunderscore Distt\textunderscore Corr

\texttt{Samp\textunderscore Distt\textunderscore Corr}
\end{document}

Underscore is not merging at the bottom of D actually. It is very close to it.

Answer 3

A fairly elementary way of stripping special meaning from things is to \detokenize them:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\texttt{\detokenize{Samp_Dist_Corr}}

\texttt{\detokenize{a@b\c_d&e~f g}}
\end{document}

Note how a space is inserted after a "control sequence". See What are the exact semantics of \detokenize?

Answer 4

I was looking to get the underscore character inside a word in any font, and Google brought me here, so here's the solution I found:

{\_}

word{\_}one{\_}two

produces

_

word_one_two

Answer 5

The solution I like best is to put \chardef\_=`_ in the preamble and use \_ to typeset an underscore. That is because:

• \verb doesn't work in macros,
• \char`_ is tedious to write and looks confusing,
• \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} messes up all my fonts,
• \textunderscore doesn't work in \texttt,
• \detokenize looks promising, but I already use a lot of \_,
• {\_} doesn't work in \texttt,
• \underline{{ }{ }} looks really bad and \underline{{ }} still doesn't look quite right,
• \rule is a hack that doesn't look right.

Example:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\texttt{Samp\_Dist\_Corr} -- original

\texttt{Samp{\_}Dist{\_}Corr} -- brackets

\texttt{Samp\textunderscore Dist\textunderscore Corr} -- textunderscore

\texttt{Samp\underline{{ }{ }}Dist\underline{{ }{ }}Corr} -- double underline

\texttt{Samp\underline{{ }}Dist\underline{{ }}Corr} -- underline

\newcommand{\TextUnderscore}{\rule{.4em}{.4pt}}
\texttt{Samp\TextUnderscore{}Dist\TextUnderscore{}Corr} -- rule

\verb|Samp_Dist_Corr| -- verb

\texttt{Samp\char`_Dist\char`_Corr} -- char

\texttt{\detokenize{Samp_Dist_Corr}} -- detokenize

\chardef\_=`_

\texttt{Samp\_Dist\_Corr} -- chardef

\end{document}

Answer 6

There's a package for this!

\documentclass{article}


\usepackage{underscore}


\begin{document}
    This_is_probably_not a_good_idea.
\end{document}

Answer 7

An explanation of what the answers do.

(*): \verb always use the tt font instead of current font.

\rule and \underline are "obvious" (typeset a rectangular black box and some "blank space" with underline respectively), read e.g. LaTeX2e unofficial reference manual for more details.

Remark:

• In T1 encoding, there's absolutely no reason to use one of the 6 items in the "char 95 of current font" category. \_ is shorter.

• Usually, there's no reason to use {\_} or \textunderscore.

  • \_ is defined to be equivalent to \textunderscore and also work in math mode.

    _{(in other words, \textunderscore is identical to \_ in text mode, and error out in math mode. Besides it's longer to type.)}

  • As far as I know (and also confirmed by some other users) the extra grouping in {\_} does nothing.

• \char is primitive TeX command. The LaTeX command is \symbol.

• You can see that LaTeX default underscore does not use char 95 when encoding is OT1, because it occasionally fails depends on the font (i.e., the encoding does not guarantee that the character at position 5F (hex) is an underscore, that character in the specific font cmtt10 "happens" to be an underscore)

  To make it "smart" (works in limited cases) it's possible to do \def\_{\ifttdefault{\char95}{\textunderscore}} using the macro in other question.

• Not that \string and \detokenize is never useful, but in the context of typesetting a single underscore \char 95 or \char `_ is shorter and does the same thing.

• \underline is a bit "semantically misleading", but otherwise it can be used, no problem. Although you may find it easier to just use the optional raise parameter to move the rule lower and/or \hspace to add additional space: \hspace{.1em}\rule[-0.2em]{.4em}{.3pt} gives

Answer 8

In a pinch, a horizontal \rule may also suffice:

\documentclass{article}
\newcommand{\TextUnderscore}{\rule{.4em}{.4pt}}
\begin{document}
\texttt{Samp\textunderscore{}Dist\textunderscore{}Corr}\par
\texttt{Samp\_Dist\_Corr}\par
\texttt{Samp\TextUnderscore{}Dist\TextUnderscore{}Corr}
\end{document}

The width - .4em - can be adjusted to suit. The height - .4pt - is the "typical" rule-thickness used elsewhere in the document.

Answer 9

Change Category Code

For those not interested the functionality of the underscore in LaTeX and just want it to function like any other character, the category code of the underscore can be changed to make it work as might be expected. Here, we assign the underscore the same category code that most punctuation has. Choose one of the following syntaxes according to your preference:

\catcode`\_=12   % alphabetic constant syntax
\catcode`_=12    % alphabetic constant syntax
\catcode"5F=12   % unicode decimal syntax
\catcode'137=12  % octal syntax
\catcode95=12    % decimal syntax

This way, you can go on about your happy life using the underscore as you normally would. If you need to subset text in math mode, the macro \sb can still be used in math mode for subscript.

Revert Category Code Change

This explanation would not be complete without stating how to restore the underscore to its original category code. Pick one of the following syntaxes according to your preference:

\catcode`\_=8   % alphabetic constant syntax
\catcode`_=8    % alphabetic constant syntax
\catcode"5F=8   % unicode decimal syntax
\catcode'137=8  % octal syntax
\catcode95=8    % decimal syntax

See egreg's answer: Is it safe to set underscore to a non-active character?

Answer 10

The easiest way to have an occasional underscore in text mode (without need to reprogram the whole Matrix...) IMHO is as following:

e.g.:

James\underline{{ }{ }}Bond

which produces a nice James_bond, with a correct spacing between letters

I hope it'll help you.

Answer 11

\underline{\hspace{1cm}} is the best solution, I think. Adjust the length of hspace as you see fit.

Answer 12

I write mostly documents without ever needing subscripts, so my favourite solution is to redefine the catcode of the underscore character. Then it behaves as any normal letter:

I put this into the preamble:

\catcode`\_=12

Should I ever need a subscript in math mode I can use \sb:

$Energy\sb{kinetic}$

Or if I need subscript in text mode I just use \textsubscript:

Normal word\textsubscript{yay!}

Answer 13

Putting the following at the top of the file seems to work for me. You can then use \_ for underscore.

\def\_{{\tt\char95}}

Answer 14

I wanted to include multiple lines of code with underscores. \verb|...| introduced spacing between the lines and \texttt{} mean that I had to escape each underscore. The best way I found was to use \begin{Verbatim}

\begin{Verbatim}
regs.regs_PC = regs.regs_NPC;
regs.regs_NPC += sizeof(md_inst_t);
\end{Verbatim}

Which compiled as

To indent the block, use\usepackage{fancyvrb} and write \begin{Verbatim}[xleftmargin=.5in]