Expandable Nested Boxes with TikZ

Question

Could someone please post a minimal tikz example to draw this:

nested boxes with tikz

I am currently doing this with nested tables, but would like to see how it can be done with tikz.

The nodes would ideally have a pre-set minimal width and height, yet expand with their contents.

"The nodes would ideally have a pre-set minimal width and height, yet expand with their contents." That is the standard behaviour of nodes, isn't it? — Seamus, May 19 '11 at 13:53
@Seamus: Normally the minimal width and height is zero IIRC. The expanding part is standard behaviour. — Martin Scharrer, May 19 '11 at 14:52
@Martin right, but minimum height and minimum width are keys tikz recognises... — Seamus, May 19 '11 at 15:49

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 03 '17 at 11:16

The shapes.multipart library of TikZ can be helpful (refer to Section 48.6 Shapes with Multiple Text Parts of the pgfmanual); a little example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.multipart}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[
  double/.style={draw, anchor=text, rectangle split,rectangle split parts=2},
  triple/.style={draw, anchor=text, rectangle split,rectangle split parts=3}
  ]
  \node[triple] {foo
    \nodepart{second}
      bar
    \nodepart{third}
      \tikz{\node[double] {\nodepart{second}baz};}
  };

  \node[triple] at (2.2,0) {some text here
    \nodepart{second}
      bar
    \nodepart{third}
      \tikz{\node[double] {\nodepart{second}some more text goes here};}
  };

  \node[double,align=center] at (7.5,0) {some text here
    \nodepart{second}
      bar \\
      \tikz{\node[double,align=center] {\nodepart{second}some more text\\ goes here};}
  };

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Lovely, thank you! How would I go about breaking text though? some more \\ text goes here just removes the space between more and text. — Nickolay Kolev, May 19 '11 at 14:29
@Nickolay Kolev: you can use the align= key for the nodes; I've updated my example. — Gonzalo Medina, May 19 '11 at 14:36

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered May 19 '11 at 21:55

3

Do you know about the drs package? (I assuming you want to construct discourse representation structures and tikz itself isn't a requirement.)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{drs}
\begin{document}
\drs{X}{ the lawyers(X) \\ 
   \qdrs{x}{x $\in$ X}
        {every}{x} 
        {y}{secretary(y) \\ x hired y}}
\end{document}

enter image description here

answered May 19 '11 at 21:55

Alan Munn

218,180

I do know it, and it is what I am using right now. I am having a few issues with it though, and I wanted to learn TikZ anyway, so I thought of writing a replacement. – Nickolay Kolev May 20 '11 at 07:23

Expandable Nested Boxes with TikZ

2 Answers2

Linked