plus/minus operator for python ±

Question

I am looking for a way to do a plus/minus operation in python 2 or 3. I do not know the command or operator, and I cannot find a command or operator to do this.

Am I

Answer 1

There is no such object in SymPy yet (as you saw, there is an issue suggesting one https://github.com/sympy/sympy/issues/5305). It's not hard to emulate, though. Just create a Symbol, and swap it out with +1 and -1 separately at the end. Like

pm = Symbol(u'±') # The u is not needed in Python 3. I used ± just for pretty printing purposes. It has no special meaning.
expr = 1 + pm*x # Or whatever
# Do some stuff
exprpos = expr.subs(pm, 1)
exprneg = expr.subs(pm, -1)

You could also just keep track of two equations from the start.