View source for When the left and right delimiter are the same symbol

[[Category:Ambiguities]]

When the left and right delimiter are the same symbol, for example a vertical line, there can be more than one way of interpreting an expression with several sets of that delimiter.

For example, when a vertical line is used to represent the absolute value (or [[Modulus|modulus]]) of a number, the following expression has at least two plausible interpretations, because [[Juxtaposition means combine in the obvious way]]

\[ |x|y|z| \]

If we write "the absolute value of \(x\)" as "\(\operatorname{abs}(x)\)", then the expression above could be interpreted as:

* \(\operatorname{abs}(x) \cdot y \cdot \operatorname{abs}(z)\)
* \(\operatorname{abs}(x \cdot \operatorname{abs}(y) \cdot z)\)