# Typesetting plus-minus uncertainties with different upper and lower bounds

TeX - LaTeX Asked on January 5, 2022

I’m making a data table and need to include my error bars with my data. $pm$ works great if the upper and lower bounds are the same, however, several of my data points has a different upper limit than lower. In papers I’ve read, I’ve seen plenty of uncertainties expressed as plus x minus y stacked on top of one another with the $pm$ sign.
Could someone tell me how to typeset such a thing?

I’m using a journal-specific document type (aastex) and the deluxetable coding.

Had the same issue, but wanted the uncertainties to not extend outside the original text height too much. As with the use of simple super- and subscript:

$1.06^{+0.04}_{-0.05}$


An alternative (that turned out to be quite useful in tables where vertical spacing is a problem) can be accomplished with raisebox and reducing the fontsize.

documentclass{article}
usepackage{amsmath}
begin{document}
$1.06${raisebox{0.5ex}{tiny$substack{+0.04 \ -0.05}$}} or
$1.06${raisebox{0.5ex}{tiny$^{+0.04}_{-0.05}$}
as opposed to $1.06^{+0.04}_{-0.05}$
end{document}


How about just using subscripts and superscripts?

$3.6^{+1.1}_{-1.4}$


Answered by jazzwhiz on January 5, 2022

Do you mean something like

documentclass{article}
usepackage{amsmath}
begin{document}
$1.23substack{+0.4 \ -0.5}$,pb
end{document}


(I've been asked about this for siunitx, but have never really worked out what it actually means or a good interface for an 'automated' approach.)

Answered by Joseph Wright on January 5, 2022

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