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When I need to ask questions, occasionally, I'll need a super or a subscript letter or number for pseudo-code or math equations.

I've seen this done in answers of this question: Special superscript characters

I've gone through the formatting page and for the life of me I can't figure it out.

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  • 2
    For future reference, you can view the source of any question by clicking the 'edit' button below it (or the 'improve this answer' if not logged in).
    – Richard J. Ross III
    Sep 14, 2013 at 17:51
  • Although, in that example, it's not superscript, it appears to be some unicode derivative.
    – Richard J. Ross III
    Sep 14, 2013 at 17:52
  • That question uses the actual Unicode codepoints for superscript characters; it’s not just formatting. If you want a superscript 2, for example, there’s one of those: ² Works in comments, too.
    – Ry-
    Sep 14, 2013 at 17:59
  • Is there a way to do it in comments?
    – theonlygusti
    Mar 16 at 23:15

4 Answers 4

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Use <sup> and <sub>: 

This is a <sup>superscript</sup>  
This is a <sub>subscript</sub>

This is a superscript
This is a subscript

Using <pre><code> blocks, because they're strange, lets you do this as well:

<pre><code>This is a <sup>superscript</sup>  
This is a <sub>subscript</sub></code></pre>

This is a superscript  
This is a subscript

But it's an evil hack and I wouldn't recommend it.

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    Okay, so is that only usable for regular text? From your example it seems as if it doesn't apply to the code section.
    – Niko
    Sep 14, 2013 at 17:51
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    @PaulBakerSaltShaker correct - the point of a code block is to show the source. If you put it inside a <pre><code> block however, or use unicode like the other question did, it is possible to have them in there, let me edit my answer for an example.
    – Richard J. Ross III
    Sep 14, 2013 at 17:52
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    Okay thanks, I get it now. This makes a lot more sense than it did before. I appreciate the clarification.
    – Niko
    Sep 14, 2013 at 18:02
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    Oooooh! Evil hacks are fun to know.
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Sep 14, 2013 at 23:28
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    Do <sup>sup</sup> and <sub>sub</sub> work in comments, too? Crap. No.
    – David Conrad
    Jul 16, 2014 at 22:28
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    @DavidConrad I notice that on biology.stackexchange.com you can do $O_2$ and it will do the 2 as subscript.
    – barlop
    Mar 17, 2017 at 4:16
  • Broken on May 18, 2017.
    – Peter - Reinstate Monica
    May 18, 2017 at 14:46
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    @barlop CO_2 doesn't work within a math equation on Chemistry Stack Exchange but CO_{2} does.
    – Chris Jenks
    Jan 4, 2019 at 22:40
  • This is buggy when I need to show backticks in fenced code. It messes up the text when switching between Rich Text mode and Markdown mode. Reproduction (note there are 4 backticks around the code: <sup><sub>silly way to run a cmd ``` which python ```</sub></sup>
    – Amit Naidu
    Feb 15 at 3:32
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    @AmitNaidu It does work with backticks — and all the other shorthand e.g. *italic*, **bold** — if you insert whitespace line padding after the opening <sub> tag and before the closing </sub> tag. For example, see the subscript block I added to the bottom of this answer: askubuntu.com/questions/482549/…
    – Benjamin R
    Mar 14 at 12:39
  • How to do this in comments?
    – theonlygusti
    Mar 16 at 23:15
4

As this answer to that question says

For instance, here on SO, you could use: demo superscript ABC
That's the output of <sup>demo superscript ABC</sup>

You can also use <sub>…</sub> for subscripting.

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In the new Stacks Editor the shortcuts for the Superscript Ctrl-. and Subscript Ctrl-, are introduced. Reference: https://github.com/StackExchange/Stacks-Editor/issues/51
Using the new shortcuts you are able to create the Superscript and Subscript texts.

Screenshot for reference:

Superscript, Subscript image

GIF for reference:

Superscript, Subscript gif

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You can use Unicode superscript numbers (⁰¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹) or html <sup>2</sup> (but that doesn't work in comments). It seems that some parts of SE are using something called mathjax to render math symbols / formulas including superscript. Here are some examples, but they won't work unless mathjax is enabled.

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  • For example, this doesn't work here on meta.stackexchange: $x_i^2$, bit it will work in math for example.
    – Jonathan Cross
    Nov 26, 2018 at 19:19

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