Comments on: How to write multi-part definitions in LaTeX

By: Vivek

Vivek — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 07:28:04 +0000

This article is really helpful to me.

By: Ibrahim

Ibrahim — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 10:34:52 +0000

How do I generate a numbered “Definition” environment that has multiple options in LaTeX? For example:

Definition 1.2 (Mathematics)
: is the study of patterns and structures.
: is the manipulation of numbers.

By: Vita

Vita — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:36:48 +0000

Lilian, you can use John’s solution (i. e. defining a custom command) with cases as well

By: Lilian

Lilian — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:58:06 +0000

Hello, it is nice the amsmath contains several math functions, but for multi-part fuctions, I actually prefer John’s solution. You have to type less than using “case”.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:42:38 +0000

The cases environment will be a bit higher than the array environment, you could see if you would compare the examples above, because there's a fixed \arraystretch of 1.2 internally. It may be ok, but if you want to stretch it less or more according to the content here's a possibility, amsmath: cases and \arraystretch.

By: Alasdair

Alasdair — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:06:25 +0000

If you’re using LaTeX for maths (which you are!) then you should automatically also use the amsmath package, which contains many many commands for different sorts of displayed equations, of which cases is one. Not all of amsmath is part of standard LaTeX.

By: Daniel Lemire

Daniel Lemire — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:04:01 +0000

I also hacked something similar for a recent paper of mine. I also did not know about the cases environment, though I’m a long time LaTeX user.

By: John

John — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:53:42 +0000

Thanks. I didn’t know that.

The “cases” environment wasn’t part of LaTeX when I learned it, back before version 2e. Back in my day …

By: gappy

gappy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:46:39 +0000

John,
This functionality is provided natively by LaTeX in the “cases” environment. It’s described in the LaTeX Companion (sec. 8.4.1).

Example:

|x| =
\begin{cases}
x & \text{if } x \geq 0 \\
-x & \text{if } x < 0
\end{cases}

(Editors note: To use the “cases” environment, add \usepackage{amsmath} to the preamble. — JC)