How To Write The Natural Numbers Symbol In LaTeX?

# How To Write The Natural Numbers Symbol In LaTeX?

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This article aims to show you the simplest and easiest way to write the Natural numbers symbol in LaTeX.

Numbers are everywhere. They’re in math, logic, computer science, and everyday life. In this lesson, you will learn how to write their sign -or symbol- in your LaTeX document.

## Set of Natural Numbers

The natural numbers are defined as those numbers used for counting and ordering. Numbers used for counting are “cardinal numbers”, and those used for ordering are “ordinal numbers”, depending on the context you will use the natural numbers you will have one or the other.

For the natural numbers some definitions begin with the 0, while others start with 1, it depends on the textbook or sources. The notation for this set of numbers is represented by an N with a blackboard bold font, but can also be written using only a bold N.

Remember that the set of natural numbers belongs to another bigger set of numbers.

## Natural Numbers in LaTeX

In LaTeX we have two options to write the symbol of the natural numbers, one with packages and the other one without any packages. Math mode must be enabled at all times while using the methods described below.

The choice without packages is the built-in option in LaTeX, using the command \mathbf{N} we get the bold-only symbol in the document. For example

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
Natural numbers \verb|\mathbf{N}| $\mathbf{N}$\\
$\mathbf{N} = \{1, 2, 3, \ldots, \infty\}$
\end{center}
\end{document}


Note: the center environment in the code is to center the text inside of it.

The second option -using package- uses either the amssymb or amsfonts packages, with the command \mathbb{N} both creating the same symbol using the blackboard bold font. Let’s see an example

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amssymb} % can be amsfonts
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
Natural numbers \verb|\mathbb{N}| $\mathbb{N}$ \\
$\mathbb{N} \in \mathbb{Z}$
\end{center}
\end{document}


The two options listed here are the best recommendations for writing this symbol, as well as other sets of symbols you may use -integers, complex, and rational. If you get stuck, just let us know or search for more tutorials.

LaTeX has so many details to stress about, thus it is better if you can learn where to look in case you need something quick. I hope this post was helpful for you, and as always keep writing in LaTeX.

All images were created in LaTeX by the Author.