How do you print superscript in Python?

Question

I am aware of the \xb function in python, but it does not seem to work for me. I am aware that I may need to download a third party module to accomplish this, if so, which one would be best? I am a noob with Python, and with StackOverflow hence my basic question. Now a bit about the context...

I am currently writing a binomial expansion solver, to try and use skills which I am teaching myself. The problem arises when I attempt to display the user input-ed expansion to the use for confirmation. Currently I am having to print the expression like so:

var1 = input("Enter a: ")
var2 = input("Enter b: ")
exponent = input("Enter n: ")

a = int(var1)
b = int(var2)
n = int(exponent)

expression = ('(%(1)dx%(2)d)^%(3)d') %\
{'1' : a, '2' : b, '3' : n}

print(expression)

confirmation = input(str("Is this correctt? Y/N "))

This prints (2x4)^5, whereas I'd prefer the index to be printed as superscript. How can this be done? I will provide any (missing) information if needed.

Answer 1

You could use sympy module that does necessary formatting for you. It supports many formats such as ascii, unicode, latex, mathml, etc:

from sympy import pretty_print as pp, latex
from sympy.abc import a, b, n

expr = (a*b)**n
pp(expr) # default
pp(expr, use_unicode=True)
print(latex(expr))
print(expr.evalf(subs=dict(a=2,b=4,n=5)))

Output

     n
(a*b) 
     n
(a⋅b) 
$\left(a b\right)^{n}$
32768.0000000000

Answer 2

You need to use a 'format' type thing. Use {}\u00b2".format(area))" and the{}becomes a²`. Here is an example:

print("The area of your rectangle is {}cm\u00b2".format(area))

The end of the code will print cm². You can change the large 2 at the end to other numbers for a different result. I do not know how to do a lower subscript though.

Answer 3

In Python 3.6+ (mentioned only because the example uses f-strings that are not available in previous versions) named Unicode characters provide an easy to write, easy to read way to do this. Here is a list.

Example:

f'\N{GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA}={density:.2f} t/m\N{SUPERSCRIPT THREE}'

yields something like

γ=1.20 t/m³

Answer 4

You're using input(), so I imagine this is console-based. To that end, you have two options, as previously discussed here. One is to use a bit of formatting trickery to display the exponents on the line above the actual expansion. The other is to use these nifty characters, assuming your console supports Unicode:

⁰¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹

You're probably going to have to increase the font size by quite a bit for them to be legible, but it's certainly a viable option assuming proper support. Aside from that, though, you mentioned this is a personal learning experience; why not combine it with another and learn the simpler aspects of Pygame? It's very straightforward, text manipulation and keyboard events couldn't be simpler, and it's never a wrong step to branch out.

Answer 5

Your Python program is probably running as a console application which can only output characters w/o formatting. The simple answer to your question is "you can't do it".

Of course it is possible to write a GUI application, our output to a document format which supports formatting (RTF, HTML, TeX, etc), but this is most likely beyond the scope of the homework problem you are working on.

Answer 6

As MK already said, you cannot format output on the command line (besides some colors and bold/blinking depending on the terminal). However, you could write it in a way that is likely to be understood by your users. If they are from the academic sector, you could use the latex-style way to express superscripts, e.g. x^2

Answer 7

Unicode character is the solution!

---

There is a very easy way to print superscripts and subscripts using Unicode characters. Do the following:

• Press alt+f2
• Type "charmap"

On doing so, you'll get tons of characters including subscripts, superscripts, etc. On the bottom left end of the window, you'd see something like 'U-xxxx' where x can be any alpha-numeric character(e.g 1,2,A,B..).

For example:

• If you want to print a string x^2, you should write the string as:

  'x\u00b2', where u00b2 is 'U+00B2' shown in the Character Map.

This is how I used Character Map in my tkinter code snippet and it worked without any errors.