Ellipses are the three dots (usually three) indicating that a pattern continues.
\begin{array}{cccc} a_{0,0} &a_{0,1} &a_{0,2} &\ldots \\ a_{1,0} &\ddots \\ \vdots \end{array}
LaTeX provides these.
\cdots
Horizontal ellipsis with the dots raised to the center of the line, as in ⋯. Used as: \( a_0\cdot a_1\cdots a_{n-1}
\)
.
\ddots
Diagonal ellipsis, ⋱. See the above array example for a usage.
\ldots
Ellipsis on the baseline, …. Used as: \(
x_0,\ldots x_{n-1} \)
. Another example is the above array example. A synonym is \mathellipsis
. A synonym from the amsmath package is \hdots
.
You can also use this command outside of mathematical text, as in The gears, brakes, \ldots{} are all broken
. (In a paragraph mode or LR mode a synonym for \ldots
is \dots
.)
\vdots
Vertical ellipsis, ⋮. See the above array example for a usage.
The amsmath package has the command \dots
to semantically mark up ellipses. This example produces two different-looking outputs for the first two uses of the \dots
command.
\usepackage{amsmath} % in preamble ... Suppose that \( p_0, p_1, \dots, p_{n-1} \) lists all of the primes. Observe that \( p_0\cdot p_1 \dots \cdot p_{n-1} +1 \) is not a multiple of any \( p_i \). Conclusion: there are infinitely many primes \( p_0, p_1, \dotsc \).
In the first line LaTeX looks to the comma following \dots
to determine that it should output an ellipsis on the baseline. The second line has a \cdot
following \dots
so LaTeX outputs an ellipsis that is on the math axis, vertically centered. However, the third usage has no follow-on character so you have to tell LaTeX what to do. You can use one of the commands: \dotsc
if you need the ellipsis appropriate for a comma following, \dotsb
if you need the ellipses that fits when the dots are followed by a binary operator or relation symbol, \dotsi
for dots with integrals, or \dotso
for others.
© 2007–2018 Karl Berry
Public Domain Software
http://latexref.xyz/Dots.html