TeXipedia

xleftrightarrow

Creates an extensible bidirectional arrow that automatically adjusts its width based on the content placed above or below it.

Overview

Particularly useful in mathematical expressions where relationships, equivalences, or transformations need to be shown with annotations.

  • Common in chemical equations to show reversible reactions with labeled conditions
  • Used in mathematical proofs to indicate bidirectional implications with explanatory text
  • Appears in formal logic and set theory to demonstrate bijective mappings
  • Valuable for showing equilibrium conditions in physics and chemistry
  • Automatically scales horizontally to accommodate text of any length placed above or below

Examples

Logical equivalence between mathematical statements.

AdefBA \xleftrightarrow{\text{def}} B
A \xleftrightarrow{\text{def}} B

Bidirectional mapping between sets with a specified relation.

Xf(x)YX \xleftrightarrow{f(x)} Y
X \xleftrightarrow{f(x)} Y