structural:expansion
Similar notations

The lower-case Latin letter x is sometimes used in place of the multiplication sign. This is considered incorrect in mathematical writing.

In algebraic notation, widely used in mathematics, a multiplication symbol is usually omitted wherever it would not cause confusion: " a multiplied by b " can be written as ab or a b.

Other symbols can also be used to denote multiplication, often to reduce confusion between the multiplication sign × and the common variable x. In some countries, such as Germany, the primary symbol for multiplication is the " dot operator " ⋅ (as in a⋅b). This symbol is also used in compound units of measurement, e.g., N⋅m (see International System of Units#Lexicographic conventions). In algebra, it is a notation to resolve ambiguity (for instance, "b times 2" may be written as b ⋅2, to avoid being confused with a value called b). This notation is used wherever multiplication should be written explicitly, such as in " ab = a ⋅2 for b = 2 "; this usage is also seen in English-language texts. In some languages, the use of full stop as a multiplication symbol, such as a. b, is common when the symbol for decimal point is comma.

Historically, computer language syntax was restricted to the ASCII character set, and the asterisk * became the de facto symbol for the multiplication operator. This selection is reflected in the numeric keypad on English-language keyboards, where the arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are represented by the keys +, -, * and /, respectively.