To try to express better what is happening in the solution two other types of reactions may be written. The first of these may be thought of as transitional. It is called the total ionic reaction and shows everything in the mixture as it exists. For the first reaction we wrote it would look like this:

Ag⁺ + NO₃^- + K⁺ + Cl^- → AgCl + K⁺ + NO₃^-

The transformation of this to the net ionic reaction is what we are really interested in. This third form of a balanced chemical equation shows only the substances that actually do something in the reaction--and in their correct forms. To get it, we take the total ionic reaction and eliminate those things which do not change from one side of the arrow to the other.