Is there a short hand command to write derivatives?

Question

Every time I want to write an (ordinary) derivative I have to use frac, like this:

\frac{\mathrm{d}^2 \omega}{\mathrm{d}\theta^2}

Or using \partial for partial derivatives.

Is there a package or a command that takes, for instance, (Ordinary or Partial, Power of derivative, variables) and outputs the formatted expression?

Answer 1

You can use the esdiff package, which has handy macros for derivatives and partial derivatives, taking care of indices. Here is a demo;

\documentclass{article}%

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage[thinc]{esdiff}

 \begin{document}

\begin{alignat*}{3}
     \diff{f}{x} &\qquad \diff*[4]{g}{t}{t = 1} \\[2ex]
     \diffp{f}{x} &\qquad\diffp{g}{tu}& & \qquad & \diffp*{g}{{t^2}{u^3}}{(0,0)}
 \end{alignat*}

 \end{document}

Answer 2

Oh, you mean not symbol, but operator. There is physics, as stated by @Zarko.

• \differential produces the variants of d: \dd x
• \derivative yields the $df/dx$ in variants: \dv{x}, \dv{f}{x}
• \partialderivative produces the partial symbol in derivaties a la carte, similar to \dv, use \pdv x, etc.
• \variation and \functionalderivative are also there, e.g. \fdv{F}{g}.

It's all in the documentation on pages 5-6, say texdoc physics for the pdf.

---

Screenshot from the document.

Answer 3

There is also another important and easy package to write ordinary derivate and partial derivatives named derivative. I have added only some simple examples how to use this package where the d ("classical derivate") is written in roman.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{derivative}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
\begin{document}

\[\odv{f(x)}{x}, \qquad \odv[n]{f(x)}{x}, \qquad \pdv[\alpha,b,c]{f}{x,y,z}\]
\[\pdv{f}{x,y}, \qquad \odv{e^{\tan(x)}}{x}, \qquad \odv{\cos t}{t}_{t=0}^{}\]
\end{document}

Answer 4

One option is to use \newcommand. Add the following lines to the preamble of your document

\newcommand{\pd}[2]{\frac{\partial{#1}}{\partial{#2}}}
\newcommand{\pdd}[2]{\frac{\partial^2{#1}}{\partial{#2}^2}}

These can be used within the document as follows

\pd u t = \pdd u x

Result:

Of course, \pd{u}{x} is preferable aesthetically and often the only correct syntax, but I am mainly trying to illustrate a minimal method to print the derivatives.

EDIT: A command for mixed derivatives and a generalization of the double derivative command to include multiple derivatives

\newcommand{\pdd}[3]{\frac{\partial^#1{#2}}{\partial{#3}^#1}}
\newcommand{\pdm}[6]{\frac{\partial^#1{#2}}{\partial{#4}^#3 \partial{#6}^#5}}

Then

\pd y t = \pdd 4 y t + \pdm 5y 2x 3t

gives

Answer 5

There is also another package (commath) that provides, along with many other commands for general mathematical typesetting, a few ways to print derivatives via \od, \pd or \md. These commands automatically choose the dimensions for text or display style. You can also use \tod, \tpd or \tmd for text style derivatives and their relative \dod, \dpd and \dmd versions.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{commath,amsmath}

\begin{document}
  \begin{equation*}
    \od{f}{x},\qquad\pd{f}{x},\qquad\pd[2]{f}{x}
  \end{equation*}
  \begin{equation*}
    \od[2]{f}{x},\qquad\md{f}{4}{x}{3}{y}{ }
  \end{equation*}
  \begin{equation*}
    \tod{f}{x},\qquad\tpd[2]{f}{x},\qquad\tmd{f}{4}{x}{3}{y}{ }
  \end{equation*}
\end{document}

Answer 6

Another package datated December 28, 2019 is diffcoeff to write the differential coefficients. Here there is some examples:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{diffcoeff,amssymb}


\begin{document}

\begin{equation}
    \diffp L{q_k}-\diff*{\diffp L{\dot{q}_k}[]}t = 0
\end{equation}

\begin{equation}
    \diffp {F(x,y)}x[(1,-4)]
\end{equation}

\begin{equation}
    \diffp*{\diff{x^\mu}{y}}{x^\lambda}
\end{equation}

\end{document}

There is not only the symbol of partial but also the classical derivates d/dx.

Answer 7

For macOS users of iWork

The solution pointed out by @pulkit (define a new command) is your only choice if you are typesetting in the iWork office suite.

These are the commands he proposed:

\newcommand{\pd}[2]{\frac{\partial{#1}}{\partial{#2}}}
\newcommand{\pdd}[2]{\frac{\partial^2{#1}}{\partial{#2}^2}}

In case you don't know, you can use LaTeX and MathML in all iWork apps (see here).
Go to Insert > Equation... or press ⌥⌘E.

However, in iWork you cannot import a package, but you are allowed to define new commands.