# Stretching a curly bracket to get better vertical symmetry

As can be seen in the following MWE,

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\begin{equation*}
\left\{
\begin{aligned}
a&=\frac{b}{c} \\
a&=e
\end{aligned}
\right.
\end{equation*}
\end{document}


which compiles to

, due to the difference in height, given by the fraction, of the two equations, the as' position with respect to the brace's margins isn't symmetrical.

Can the bracket be automatically stretched/enlarged in a way such that it looks symmetrical?

Thank you for your help, it is very appreciated.

• Add \vphantom{\frac{b}{c}} before e? – user121799 Jun 12 at 23:28
• @marmot, it works, nice trick, thanks. – Edoardo Serra Jun 12 at 23:31

I didn't get your MWE run through, but with a "regular" document class such as article it does run through. One standard trick is to add a \vphantom.

\documentclass[fleqn]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\begin{equation*}
\left\{
\begin{aligned}
a&=\frac{b}{c} \\
a&=\vphantom{\frac{b}{c}}e
\end{aligned}
\right.
\end{equation*}
\end{document}


Note also that mathtools has several specialized commands/environments for similar scenarios, such as dcases.

• Edited the question, now it should work properly. Thank you again. – Edoardo Serra Jun 12 at 23:39

Here are three possibilities:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{bigstrut}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}

\begin{equation*}
\left\{
\begin{aligned}
a&=\frac{b}{c} \\
a&=e\vphantom{\frac{b}{c_k}}%\\[-1ex]\mbox{}
\end{aligned}
\right.
\end{equation*}
\bigskip

\begin{equation*}
\left\{
\begin{aligned}
a&=\smash[t]{\frac{b}{c}} \\
a&=e
\end{aligned}
\right.
\end{equation*}
\bigskip

\begin{equation*}\setlength{\bigstrutjot}{2ex}
\left\{
\begin{aligned}
a&= \frac{b}{c} \\
a&=e \bigstrut[b]
\end{aligned}
\right.
\end{equation*}

\end{document}