How to Write the Asterisk Symbol (*) in LaTeX

In LaTeX, you can write the asterisk symbol (*) using the \ast command for mathematical expressions. For text, you can directly use the asterisk character *.

The following examples show how to write the asterisk symbol in LaTeX.

How to Write the Asterisk Symbol in Text

We can directly use the asterisk character * in LaTeX document for text.

Suppose we want to write the asterisk symbol in the text.

We can use the following LaTeX code to do so:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}

This is an example of using the asterisk symbol * in a sentence.

\end{document}

Output: 👇️

This is an example of using the asterisk symbol * in a sentence.

In this example, we use the asterisk character * is used directly in the text.

How to Write the Asterisk Symbol in Mathematical Expressions

For mathematical expressions, We can use the \ast command to ensure proper formatting.

Suppose we would like to write mathematical expressions that contain the asterisk symbol.

We can use the following LaTeX code to do so:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}

An inline mathematical expression: \( a \ast b \).

A displayed mathematical expression:
\[
a \ast b = c
\]

\end{document}

Output: 👇️

In this example, we use the \ast command to denote the asterisk symbol in both inline and displayed mathematical expressions.

Conclusion

We can use the asterisk character * directly for text and the \ast command for mathematical expressions. This ensures that the asterisk symbol is properly formatted and displayed in LaTeX document.