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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
TraditionalForm
  • See Also
    • StandardForm
    • Text
    • TeXForm
    • MakeExpression
    • ToBoxes
    • MathMLForm
    • Style
    • SpokenString
  • Related Guides
    • Mathematical Typesetting
    • Cell Menu
    • Converting between Expressions & Strings
  • Workflows
    • Reformat an Expression in Traditional Form
    • Get Output in Traditional Textbook Form
    • Find the Underlying Box Structure of a Formatted Expression
  • Tech Notes
    • Forms of Input and Output
    • The Interpretation of Textual Forms
    • The Representation of Textual Forms
    • TraditionalForm Reference Information
    • See Also
      • StandardForm
      • Text
      • TeXForm
      • MakeExpression
      • ToBoxes
      • MathMLForm
      • Style
      • SpokenString
    • Related Guides
      • Mathematical Typesetting
      • Cell Menu
      • Converting between Expressions & Strings
    • Workflows
      • Reformat an Expression in Traditional Form
      • Get Output in Traditional Textbook Form
      • Find the Underlying Box Structure of a Formatted Expression
    • Tech Notes
      • Forms of Input and Output
      • The Interpretation of Textual Forms
      • The Representation of Textual Forms
      • TraditionalForm Reference Information

TraditionalForm[expr]

prints as an approximation to the traditional mathematical notation for expr.

Details and Options
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Basic Objects  
Special Input Forms  
Special Output Forms  
Applications  
Properties & Relations  
Possible Issues  
Neat Examples  
See Also
Tech Notes
Related Guides
Related Workflows
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • StandardForm
    • Text
    • TeXForm
    • MakeExpression
    • ToBoxes
    • MathMLForm
    • Style
    • SpokenString
  • Related Guides
    • Mathematical Typesetting
    • Cell Menu
    • Converting between Expressions & Strings
  • Workflows
    • Reformat an Expression in Traditional Form
    • Get Output in Traditional Textbook Form
    • Find the Underlying Box Structure of a Formatted Expression
  • Tech Notes
    • Forms of Input and Output
    • The Interpretation of Textual Forms
    • The Representation of Textual Forms
    • TraditionalForm Reference Information
    • See Also
      • StandardForm
      • Text
      • TeXForm
      • MakeExpression
      • ToBoxes
      • MathMLForm
      • Style
      • SpokenString
    • Related Guides
      • Mathematical Typesetting
      • Cell Menu
      • Converting between Expressions & Strings
    • Workflows
      • Reformat an Expression in Traditional Form
      • Get Output in Traditional Textbook Form
      • Find the Underlying Box Structure of a Formatted Expression
    • Tech Notes
      • Forms of Input and Output
      • The Interpretation of Textual Forms
      • The Representation of Textual Forms
      • TraditionalForm Reference Information

TraditionalForm

TraditionalForm[expr]

prints as an approximation to the traditional mathematical notation for expr.

Details and Options

  • Output from TraditionalForm cannot necessarily be given as unique and unambiguous input to the Wolfram Language. »
  • TraditionalForm inserts invisible TagBox and InterpretationBox constructs into the box form of output it generates, to allow unique interpretation.
  • Graphics and Graphics3D are displayed graphically in TraditionalForm. »
  • TraditionalForm can be edited in the notebook front end.
  • TraditionalForm uses special characters as well as ordinary keyboard characters. »
  • TraditionalForm incorporates a large collection of rules for approximating traditional mathematical notation.
  • TraditionalForm prints functions in Global` context in the form f(x).
  • ToExpression[boxes,TraditionalForm] will attempt to convert from TraditionalForm. »
  • The notebook front end contains menu items for conversion to and from TraditionalForm.
  • When an input evaluates to TraditionalForm[expr], TraditionalForm does not appear in the output. »

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (3)

Formatting of a trigonometric function:

Formatting of a hypergeometric function:

Partial derivative of an arbitrary function:

Scope  (9)

Basic Objects  (2)

Integer, Rational, Real, and Complex numbers:

Arbitrary-precision Real and Complex numbers:

Special constants:

Characters and strings of characters:

Control characters for strings:

Polynomials:

Special Input Forms  (4)

Different ways of representing Power expressions:

Special typeset expressions:

The same expressions entered as typical input:

Different list structures:

Mathematical functions with special representations:

Special Output Forms  (3)

Some objects use a special output representation:

Compare the TraditionalForm with the underlying FullForm of the expression:

Some objects use an elided output representation:

The elided information is visible in the InputForm:

Graphic objects display as graphics:

Applications  (2)

Euler's formula in traditional mathematical notation:

A triangle inequality:

Properties & Relations  (4)

When an input evaluates to TraditionalForm[expr], TraditionalForm does not appear in the output:

Out is assigned the value Sin[x], not TraditionalForm[Sin[x]]:

TraditionalForm is two-dimensional:

StandardForm is two-dimensional and unambiguous for input:

OutputForm uses only keyboard characters:

InputForm and FullForm provide one-dimensional formatting:

Use ToBoxes to see the underlying box structure:

Use ToExpression to convert the boxes to the original expression:

Add formatting via Format:

Possible Issues  (2)

TraditionalForm is ambiguous, i.e. different expressions can display similarly:

The following box structure has similar display:

When interpreting the boxes, a particular interpretation is selected:

Wolfram Language–generated formatting includes data for unambiguous interpretation:

Even when an output omits TraditionalForm from the top level, it is not stripped from subexpressions:

The output does not have TraditionalForm in it:

However, the variable e does have TraditionalForm in it, which may affect subsequent evaluations:

The integral is not evaluated due to the intervening TraditionalForm:

Assign variables first and then apply TraditionalForm to the result to maintain computability:

Neat Examples  (1)

Nested roots:

See Also

StandardForm  Text  TeXForm  MakeExpression  ToBoxes  MathMLForm  Style  SpokenString

Tech Notes

    ▪
  • Forms of Input and Output
  • ▪
  • The Interpretation of Textual Forms
  • ▪
  • The Representation of Textual Forms
  • ▪
  • TraditionalForm Reference Information

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Mathematical Typesetting
  • ▪
  • Cell Menu
  • ▪
  • Converting between Expressions & Strings

Related Workflows

    Related Workflows
    ▪
  • Reformat an Expression in Traditional Form
  • ▪
  • Get Output in Traditional Textbook Form
  • ▪
  • Find the Underlying Box Structure of a Formatted Expression

History

Introduced in 1996 (3.0) | Updated in 2007 (6.0) ▪ 2008 (7.0)

Wolfram Research (1996), TraditionalForm, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TraditionalForm.html (updated 2008).

Text

Wolfram Research (1996), TraditionalForm, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TraditionalForm.html (updated 2008).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 1996. "TraditionalForm." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2008. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TraditionalForm.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (1996). TraditionalForm. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TraditionalForm.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_traditionalform, author="Wolfram Research", title="{TraditionalForm}", year="2008", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TraditionalForm.html}", note=[Accessed: 01-December-2025]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_traditionalform, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={TraditionalForm}, year={2008}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TraditionalForm.html}, note=[Accessed: 01-December-2025]}

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