avoid space before \textsuperscript in linebreak

Question

I have a lot of

Ca\textsuperscript{2+}

in my text. In my editor I use automatic linebreaking to keep the text readable. Now it sometimes happens that lhe line breaks like this:

Ca
\textsuperscript{2+}

which produces a space between Ca and 2+.

Is there a way to write this code that it would ignore the linebreak or do I have to find a way to change the behaviour of my editor?

Answer 1

How about using semantic markup. I.e. you write what you mean and use macros to format it. That way if you change how you want the text formatted later you don't need to fix it all over the place.

\newcommand{Ion}[2]{#1\textsuperscript{#2}}

Now you can write

Blah blah \Ion{Ca}{2+} blah blah.

Hopefully your text editor wont break that anywhere bad.

And if you decide you later want all your ions formatted in bold you can just change the macro

\newcommand{Ion}[2]{\textbf{#1\textsuperscript{#2}}}

Answer 2

While using semantic markup seems preferable, adding a % (comment sign) after "CA" will conceal the line break and hereby get rid of the space.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\Huge

Ca
\textsuperscript{2+}

Ca%
\textsuperscript{2+}

\end{document}