How do I mimic the functionality of “<>”?

Question

The Cell expression for:

<>

is

Cell[BoxData["<>"], "Input"]

However similar expressions are parsed into RowBox(s), for example:

><

Cell[BoxData[RowBox[{">", "<"}]], "Input"]

How do I get expressions like >< to act like <> does?

My bet is you can't. Operators are predefined and I definately hope someone proves me wrong
You could probably put something together with InterpretationBox and MakeBoxes
@R.M I will look into it last time I tried to use InterpretationBox I ran into a dead end.

David Carraher · Answer 1 · 2012-08-24 01:11:32Z

Are you interested only in the case of "less than" and "greater than" symbols? Might other variations serve the purpose?

The following parentheses are represented like "<>" (they are represented without using RowBox), regardless of the order of the characters:

parentheses

Mr.Wizard · Answer 2 · 2012-08-24 02:18:06Z

up vote 2 down vote

Michael Pilat has stated that you cannot create your own compound operators.

You may find some utility in these posts:

answered Aug 24 '12 at 2:18

Mr.Wizard♦
60.3k791263

	Shouldn't it be closed as a duplicate then? – rm -rf♦ Aug 24 '12 at 2:53
	@R.M which one where? – Mr.Wizard♦ Aug 24 '12 at 7:12

2 Answers