LaTeX Examples
% This is a sample LaTeX input file. (Version of 11 April 1994.) % % A '%' character causes TeX to ignore all remaining text on the line, % and is used for comments like this one.
\documentclass{article} % Specifies the document class
% The preamble begins here.
\title{An Example Document} % Declares the document's title. \author{Leslie Lamport} % Declares the author's name. \date{\today} % Deleting this command produces today's date.
\newcommand{\ip}[2]{(#1, #2)}
% Defines \ip{arg1}{arg2} to mean
% (arg1, arg2).
%\newcommand{\ip}[2]{\langle #1 | #2\rangle}
% This is an alternative definition of
% \ip that is commented out.
\begin{document} % End of preamble and beginning of text.
\maketitle % Produces the title.
This is an example input file. Comparing it with the output it generates can show you how to produce a simple document of your own.
\section{Ordinary Text} % Produces section heading. Lower-level
% sections are begun with similar
% \subsection and \subsubsection commands.
The ends of words and sentences are marked
by spaces. It doesn't matter how many
spaces you type; one is as good as 100. The end of a line counts as a space.
One or more blank lines denote the end of a paragraph.
Since any number of consecutive spaces are treated like a single one, the formatting of the input file makes no difference to
\LaTeX, % The \LaTeX command generates the LaTeX logo.
but it makes a difference to you. When you use \LaTeX, making your input file as easy to read as possible will be a great help as you write your document and when you change it. This sample file shows how you can add comments to your own input file.
Because printing is different from typewriting, there are a number of things that you have to do differently when preparing an input file than if you were just typing the document directly. Quotation marks like
``this
have to be handled specially, as do quotes within quotes:
``\,`this' % \, separates the double and single quote.
is what I just
wrote, not `that'\,.
Dashes come in three sizes: an
intra-word
dash, a medium dash for number ranges like
1--2,
and a punctuation
dash---like
this.
A sentence-ending space should be larger than the space between words within a sentence. You sometimes have to type special commands in conjunction with punctuation characters to get this right, as in the following sentence.
Gnats, gnus, etc.\ all % `\ ' makes an inter-word space.
begin with G\@. % \@ marks end-of-sentence punctuation.
You should check the spaces after periods when reading your output to make sure you haven't forgotten any special cases. Generating an ellipsis
\ldots\ % `\ ' is needed after `\ldots' because TeX
% ignores spaces after command names like \ldots
% made from \ + letters.
%
% Note how a `%' character causes TeX to ignore
% the end of the input line, so these blank lines
% do not start a new paragraph.
%
with the right spacing around the periods requires a special command.
\LaTeX\ interprets some common characters as commands, so you must type special commands to generate them. These characters include the following:
\$ \& \% \# \{ and \}.
In printing, text is usually emphasized with an
\emph{italic}
type style.
\begin{em}
A long segment of text can also be emphasized
in this way. Text within such a segment can be
given \emph{additional} emphasis.
\end{em}
It is sometimes necessary to prevent \LaTeX\ from breaking a line where it might otherwise do so. This may be at a space, as between the ``Mr. and ``Jones in
``Mr.~Jones, % ~ produces an unbreakable interword space.
or within a word---especially when the word is a symbol like
\mbox{\emph{itemnum}}
that makes little sense when hyphenated across lines.
Footnotes\footnote{This is an example of a footnote.} pose no problem.
\LaTeX\ is good at typesetting mathematical formulas like
\( x-3y + z = 7 \)
or
\( a_{1} > x^{2n} + y^{2n} > x' \)
or
\( \ip{A}{B} = \sum_{i} a_{i} b_{i} \).
The spaces you type in a formula are ignored. Remember that a letter like
$x$ % $ ... $ and \( ... \) are equivalent
is a formula when it denotes a mathematical symbol, and it should be typed as one.
\section{Displayed Text}
Text is displayed by indenting it from the left margin. Quotations are commonly displayed. There are short quotations \begin{quote}
This is a short a quotation. It consists of a single paragraph of text. See how it is formatted.
\end{quote} and longer ones. \begin{quotation}
This is a longer quotation. It consists of two paragraphs of text, neither of which are particularly interesting.
This is the second paragraph of the quotation. It is just as dull as the first paragraph.
\end{quotation} Another frequently-displayed structure is a list. The following is an example of an \emph{itemized} list. \begin{itemize}
\item This is the first item of an itemized list.
Each item in the list is marked with a ``tick.
You don't have to worry about what kind of tick
mark is used.
\item This is the second item of the list. It
contains another list nested inside it. The inner
list is an \emph{enumerated} list.
\begin{enumerate}
\item This is the first item of an enumerated
list that is nested within the itemized list.
\item This is the second item of the inner list.
\LaTeX\ allows you to nest lists deeper than
you really should.
\end{enumerate}
This is the rest of the second item of the outer
list. It is no more interesting than any other
part of the item.
\item This is the third item of the list.
\end{itemize} You can even display poetry. \begin{verse}
There is an environment for verse \\ % The \\ command separates lines Whose features some poets % within a stanza. will curse.
% One or more blank lines separate stanzas.
For instead of making\\
Them do \emph{all} line breaking, \\
It allows them to put too many words on a line when they'd rather be
forced to be terse.
\end{verse}
Mathematical formulas may also be displayed. A displayed formula is one-line long; multiline formulas require special formatting instructions.
\[ \ip{\Gamma}{\psi'} = x + y^{2} + z_{i}^{n}\]
Don't start a paragraph with a displayed equation, nor make one a paragraph by itself.
\end{document} % End of document.
