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Square brackets are also often used in place of a second set of parentheses when they are nested—so as to provide a visual distinction. In mathematical expressions in general, parentheses are also used to indicate grouping (i.e., which parts belong together) when edible to avoid ambiguities and improve clarity.
For example, in the expression 3(x+y) the parentheses are symbols of grouping, but in the expression (3, 5) the parentheses may indicate an open interval. The most common symbols of grouping are the parentheses and the square brackets, and the latter are usually used to avoid too many repeated parentheses.
Both parentheses and brackets are used to denote a half-open interval; [5, 12) would be the set of all real numbers between 5 and 12, including 5 but not 12. The numbers may come as close as they like to 12, including 11.999 and so forth, but 12.0 is not included.
5. For several uses as brackets (in pairs or with and ) see § Other brackets. ∤ Non-divisibility: means that n is not a divisor of m. ∥ 1. Denotes parallelism in elementary geometry: if PQ and RS are two lines, means that they are parallel. 2.
Order of operations, uses multiple types of brackets; Set, uses braces "{}" Interval, uses square brackets and parentheses; Matrix, uses square brackets and parentheses; Inner product space, uses parentheses and chevrons
Brackets: Angle bracket, Parenthesis • Bullet: Interpunct ‸ ⁁ ⎀ Caret (proofreading) Caret (computing) (^) Chevron (non-Unicode name) Caret, Circumflex, Guillemet, Hacek, Glossary of mathematical symbols ^ Circumflex (symbol) Caret (The freestanding circumflex symbol is known as a caret in computing and mathematics)
The less-than sign is a mathematical symbol that denotes an inequality between two values. The widely adopted form of two equal-length strokes connecting in an acute angle at the left, <, has been found in documents dated as far back as the 1560s.
Parentheses can be nested, and should be evaluated from the inside outward. For legibility, outer parentheses can be made larger than inner parentheses. Alternately, other grouping symbols, such as curly braces { } or square brackets [ ], are sometimes used along with parentheses ( ). For example: