Typesetting plus-minus uncertainties with different upper and lower bounds

Question

I'm making a data table and need to include my error bars with my data.  $pm$ works great if the upper and lower bounds are the same, however, several of my data points has a different upper limit than lower.  In papers I've read, I've seen plenty of uncertainties expressed as plus x minus y stacked on top of one another with the $pm$ sign.
Could someone tell me how to typeset such a thing?

I'm using a journal-specific document type (aastex) and the deluxetable coding.

Joseph Wright · Accepted Answer

Do you mean something like

documentclass{article}
usepackage{amsmath}
begin{document}
 $1.23substack{+0.4  -0.5}$,pb
end{document}

(I've been asked about this for siunitx, but have never really worked out what it actually means or a good interface for an 'automated' approach.)

jazzwhiz · Answer

How about just using subscripts and superscripts?

$3.6^{+1.1}_{-1.4}$

adruino-io · Answer

Had the same issue, but wanted the uncertainties to not extend outside the original text height too much. As with the use of simple super- and subscript:
$1.06^{+0.04}_{-0.05}$

An alternative (that turned out to be quite useful in tables where vertical spacing is a problem) can be accomplished with raisebox and reducing the fontsize.
documentclass{article}
usepackage{amsmath}
begin{document}
    $1.06${raisebox{0.5ex}{tiny$substack{+0.04  -0.05}$}} or 
    $1.06${raisebox{0.5ex}{tiny$^{+0.04}_{-0.05}$}
    as opposed to $1.06^{+0.04}_{-0.05}$
end{document}

Typesetting plus-minus uncertainties with different upper and lower bounds

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