# LaTeX Spacial Characters

The following characters play a special role in LaTeX and are called special printing characters, or simply special characters.

`# \$ % & ~ _ ^ \ { }`

Whenever you put one of these special characters into your file, you are doing something special. If you simply want the character to be printed just as any other letter, include a \ in front of the character. For example, \\$ will produce \$ in your output.

The exception to the rule is the \ itself because \\ has its own special meaning. A \ is produced by typing \$\backslash\$ in your file.

The meaning of these characters are:

• ~ (tilde) unbreakable space, use it whenever you want to leave a space which is unbreakable, and cannot expand or shrink, as e.q. in names: A.~U.~Thor.
• \$ (dollar sign) to start an finish math mode.
• _ (underscore) for subscripts in math mode.
• ^ (hat) for superscripts in math mode.
• \ (backslash) starting commands, which extend until the first non-alphanumerical character. The space following the command is swallowed. The following line results in what expected:
``` The \TeX nician is an expert in \TeX{} language.
```
• {} (curly brackets) to group and separate commands from its surroundings. Must appear in pairs.