<mfenced>

Deprecated: This feature is no longer recommended. Though some browsers might still support it, it may have already been removed from the relevant web standards, may be in the process of being dropped, or may only be kept for compatibility purposes. Avoid using it, and update existing code if possible; see the compatibility table at the bottom of this page to guide your decision. Be aware that this feature may cease to work at any time.

Non-standard: This feature is not standardized. We do not recommend using non-standard features in production, as they have limited browser support, and may change or be removed. However, they can be a suitable alternative in specific cases where no standard option exists.

The <mfenced> MathML element provides the possibility to add custom opening and closing brackets (such as parentheses) and separators (such as commas or semicolons) to an expression.

Note: Historically, the <mfenced> element was defined as a shorthand for writing fenced expressions and equivalent to an expanded form involving <mrow> and <mo> elements. Nowadays, it is recommended to use that equivalent form instead.

Attributes

This element's attributes include the global MathML attributes.

close

A string for the closing delimiter. The default value is ")" and any white space is trimmed.

open

A string for the opening delimiter. The default value is "(" and any white space is trimmed.

separators

A sequence of zero or more characters to be used for different separators, optionally divided by white space, which is ignored. The default value is ",". By specifying more than one character, it is possible to set different separators for each argument in the expression. If there are too many separators, all excess is ignored. If there are too few separators in the expression, the last specified separator is repeated.

Examples

The last separator is repeated (,)

html
<math display="block">
  <mfenced open="{" close="}" separators=";;,">
    <mi>a</mi>
    <mi>b</mi>
    <mi>c</mi>
    <mi>d</mi>
    <mi>e</mi>
  </mfenced>
</math>

Sample rendering:

{a;b;c,d,e}

Rendering in your browser:

All excess is ignored (,)

html
<math display="block">
  <mfenced open="[" close="]" separators="||||,">
    <mi>a</mi>
    <mi>b</mi>
    <mi>c</mi>
    <mi>d</mi>
    <mi>e</mi>
  </mfenced>
</math>

Sample rendering:

[a|b|c|d|e]

Rendering in your browser:

Technical summary

Implicit ARIA role None

Specifications

The <mfenced> element is not defined in any browser-oriented specification but you can find a description in MathML 4.

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
mfenced
Deprecated Non-standard
Chrome – No support
Chrome
footnote No support
Edge – No support
Edge
footnote No support
Firefox – No support
Firefox 1 – 72 (Release date: 2004-11-09)
footnote Removed in 73 and later
Opera – No support
Opera
footnote No support
Safari – Full support
Safari 6 (Release date: 2012-07-25)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – No support
Chrome Android
footnote No support
Firefox for Android – No support
Firefox for Android 4 – 68 (Release date: 2011-03-29)
footnote Removed in 79 and later
Opera Android – No support
Opera Android
footnote No support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 6 (Release date: 2012-09-10)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – No support
Samsung Internet
footnote No support
WebView Android – No support
WebView Android
footnote No support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 6 (Release date: 2012-09-10)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support
No support
No support
Non-standard. Check cross-browser support before using.
Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.