Latex on python: \alpha and \beta don't work?

Question

I'm using matplotlib to produce some graphics, and I'm using latex for the legends.

More specifically, I'm trying to use something like this:

loglog(x,x, '-r',label='$ \alpha $')
legend()
show()

However, this code does not present a legend on the figure, and gets error after I close the image.

I'm using the enthought package (for mac), but the error comes from the pylab/scipy.

The error the appears is exactly:

$ lpha $ (at char 0), (line:1, col:1)

However, if use the \mu or \gamma, it works well!! I only found about this problem on \beta and \alpha.

Does anyone knows what this can be? I believe python is interpreting "\a" as some character... but I don't know how should I debug / avoid it.

Have you tried `\\a` instead of `\a`? – tauran Oct 20 '11 at 13:37 — tauran, Oct 20 '11 at 13:37

score 60 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 13 '19 at 03:52

60

The issue is that \a and \b have special meaning inside a Python string literal.

I recommend that you use raw strings whenever there is a backslash embedded inside a string:

r'$ \alpha $'

edited Sep 13 '19 at 03:52

Trenton McKinney

answered Oct 20 '11 at 13:41

NPE

2

For those trying to reproduce the answer, there is an (obvious) typo maybe worth mentioning: `r'$ \alpha $'` (the closing quote is missing). – bela83 May 06 '19 at 09:28

score 20 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 28 '11 at 18:16

20

In addition to using raw strings (as mentioned in the post above) you can also escape the backslash. So typing \\alpha and \\beta will also work.

answered Oct 28 '11 at 18:16

abergou

The accepted answer did not work for me, i.e. '$\beta$', however, '$\\beta$' did. – Christopher.L May 03 '21 at 12:26

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 28 '22 at 06:50

0

Hi if your \alpha and \beta don't work on Latex

use $\alpha$
likewise $\beta$ so on.

hope it works

answered May 28 '22 at 06:50

aryangulati

3 Answers3