How to write the symbol for a subset in LaTeX?

This article aims to show you the simplest and easiest way to write the symbol for a subset in LaTeX.

In mathematics specifically in set theory, subsets are common and they have their own symbols to represent them. Today you will learn how to write these symbols in your document.

Subsets symbols

In mathematics, a set A is a subset of a set B if all elements of A are also elements of B, likewise, we also say B is a superset of A. The most common symbols for the definition of subset is a look-alike C with underlined and for  superset a mirror C with the same underlined. 

For this tutorial, we will focus only on the subsets. 

Subset in LaTeX

To write these symbols in LaTeX we do not require extra packages for commands, it is already built-in. We will use the command \subseteq, it does not need any value as an argument, just the plain command. For example 

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
    $A \subseteq B$ and $B \subseteq C$\\
    $\therefore\, A \subseteq B$
\end{center}
\end{document}

In case we want to denote the elements of a set A to be less than and not equal to those elements of a set B, we use the \nsubseteq command, which is the same symbol for the subset except one backslash in the middle of it. For example

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
    $A$ is not a subset of $B \rightarrow A \nsubseteq B$
\end{document}

Proper Subset in LaTeX

Given two sets, it is possible that these two sets A and B are not equal and at least one element of B is not an element of A, we say that A is a proper subset of B. 

The symbol is denoted by a look alike C with an underline but with a small backslash in the middle of the line. This time we have to use the amssymb package since LaTeX does not have this symbol in particular, the command would be \subsetneq. For example

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amssymb} % loading the package
\begin{document}
    $A \subsetneq F$ and $F \subsetneq G$\\
    $\therefore\, A \subsetneq G$
\end{document}

It is important to know that depending on the notation you are using in set theory these symbols may vary, since there are unclear conventions for set theory symbols. This could seem as not the answer you’re looking for, but sometimes the best answers are in peculiar places on the internet. 

Remember other user contributions in forums are there to be read by you someday. We recommended any trusted online community with a research effort and useful information such as Stack Exchange.

In case you have other questions, you may want to look for other packages for different variations of these symbols, maybe you can even create a table with all the knowledge you find about them, but we personally recommended sticking with the amssymb package for the task.

I hope this post was helpful, and as always keep writing in LaTeX.

All the images were created with LaTeX by the author.

Further Reading

LaTex Tutorial on Symbols

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