engas99: Absolute Value Symbol in LaTeX

Learn how to include the absolute value symbol in your LaTeX documents through several examples.

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The general method to display an absolute value (or the modulus symbol) in LaTeX is by surrounding the number, variable, or expression with two vertical lines, |.

|x + y| = 1

The keyboard shortcut for the this symbol is Alt + 124. To use this shortcut, press Down the [Alt] key whilst typing 124. 

Check the following example:

% Abs symbol in LaTeX
This is an example of an absolute value symbol $|x+y|$.

Compiling of this piece of code yields:

Method 2: Using left vertical and right vertical commands

In this method, we can use the \lvert and \rvert command. These two commands require loading the amsmath package. Check this example:

% Required package
\usepackage{amsmath}
%...
Modulus symbol for inline equations, $\lvert x + y \rvert = 1$ 

which yields the following output:

Method 3: Using mid command

Another similar command is \mid command. This will have larger spaces between the modulus symbol and other characters.

Modulus symbol for inline equations, $\mid x + y \mid = 1$ 

Big absolute value latex

The following table highlights different LaTeX commands that can be used to get big vertical line for absolute value symbol (big modulus symbol):

Description	LaTeX command	Output
Absolute value symbol	| \frac{e^2}{2}x |	\( | \frac{e^2}{2}x | \)
Using right and left commands	\left| \frac{e^2}{2}x \right|	\( \left | \frac{e^2}{2}x \right | \)
Using big command	\big | \frac{e^2}{2}x \big |	\( \big | \frac{e^2}{2}x \big | \)
Using bigg command	\bigg | \frac{e^2}{2}x \bigg |	\( \bigg | \frac{e^2}{2}x \bigg | \)
Using Bigg command	\Bigg | \frac{e^2}{2}x \Bigg |	\( \Bigg | \frac{e^2}{2}x \Bigg | \)

This has been considered in a previous post: “How do you make big parentheses in LaTeX?”.

Conclusion

In this short post, we presented different commands to typeset absolute value symbols in LaTeX.