Northwest Arrow in LaTeX (\nwarrow)

Where it is used

Draws a diagonal arrow pointing up and to the left, used mostly in diagrams and illustrations.

\nwarrow is the least common of the four diagonal arrows. It appears in hand-built arrays that show how entries relate, such as the dependencies in a dynamic-programming table where a cell depends on its upper-left neighbor. Combined with \nearrow, \searrow, and \swarrow it can sketch small diagrams without a drawing package. For polished commutative diagrams, a dedicated diagram environment gives proper arrow lengths and labels. Its fixed size and relation spacing make it convenient inside arrays and tables. Reading the four diagonal arrows as compass directions (northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest) helps remember the names.

Minimal compilable example

Paste this into an empty .tex file and compile it with pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Northwest Arrow: $\nwarrow$

\[ D[i][j] \nwarrow D[i-1][j-1] \]
\end{document}

Related symbols

• Right Harpoon Down\rightharpoondown
• Left Harpoon Down\leftharpoondown
• Southwest Arrow\swarrow
• Right Harpoon Up\rightharpoonup
• Left Harpoon Up\leftharpoonup
• Southeast Arrow\searrow

Frequently asked questions

How do I write Northwest Arrow in LaTeX?

Type \nwarrow in math mode, for example $D[i][j] \nwarrow D[i-1][j-1]$. It works in plain LaTeX without loading any package.

Which package do I need for \nwarrow?

None. \nwarrow is part of standard LaTeX, so it compiles with nothing in the preamble but the document class.

Can I use \nwarrow in text mode, or only in math mode?

Only in math mode. Outside $...$ LaTeX stops with "Missing $ inserted", so write $\nwarrow$ in running text. If you only need the glyph in text, paste the Unicode character ↖ instead (with XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX and a font that has it).