Operators

The MathML <mo> element is used to specify an operator on a web page. It can specify any type of operator for example: =, +, ?, ?, and even parentheses and commas.

Let’s take an expression to deploy an operator.

3 x – 2 y

Equivalent code:

1. <math xmlns=’http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML’ display=’block’ >  
2.   <mn>3</mn>  
3.   <mi>x</mi>  
4.   <mo>–</mo>  
5.   <mn>2</mn>  
6.   <mi>y</mi>  
7. </math>  

Note: Traditional typography differentiates hyphens from minus signs, which are longer. In the above HTML code, we used a hyphen, but since we put it in an element, the browser read it as a minus sign.

---

Operator Entities

Operator entities are used to represent special symbols like minus signs, less than, greater than etc. HTML offers several character entities dedicated to mathematics. A list of most common operators:

Index	Symbol	Entity	Hex	Description
1)	?	−	−	Subtraction
2)	*	×	×	Multiplication
3)	/	÷	÷	Division
4)	≠	≠	≠	Not equal
5)	≈	≈	≈	Approximately equal
6)	<	<	<	Less than
7)	≤	≤	≤	Less than or equal
8)	>	>	>	Greater than
9)	≥	≥	≥	Greater than or equal
10)	±	±	±	Plus or minus

The operator entities are generally used as the content of an element:

Example:

Let’s take an example to see the use of operators in MathML.

See this equation: 5 x – 4 y ? 0

Equivalent code:

1. <math xmlns=’http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML’ display=’block’>  
2.   <mn>5</mn>  
3.   <mi>x</mi>  
4.   <mo>–</mo>  
5.   <mn>4</mn>  
6.   <mi>y</mi>  
7.   <mo>≥</mo>  
8.   <mn>0</mn>  
9. </math>  

Supporting Browsers:

Element	Chrome	IE	Firefox (Gecko)	Opera	Safari
<mo>	Not Supported	Not Supported	Supported	Not Supported	Only Basic Support