How can one put a "[" after "\item" in LaTeX?

Question

The following latex does not compile because of the "[" after the "\item". I presume it is because LaTeX expects a "]" as per the "\item[option]" syntax. However, I just want to insert the "[" character into the text as the first character of the enumerated item.

\documentclass[oneside,12pt]{article}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}

\item before

\item [ random text

\item after

\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

I would like the LaTeX to generate a document:

before

[ random text

after

One way I've come up with is to put a "\ " in front of the "[", however I'd appreciate thoughts on the least invasive way to do this.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can't use [, it won't work.

The [ is a recognized command in LaTeX, but only within the math environment. So you need

\item $[$ random text

Answer 2

Just like whenever you want to put a special character (such as a space, or something else) after a command, you can use the {} to supress the next character.

\item{}[your random text

Answer 3

I type it the following way \item[\mbox{$[0,1]$}]