Mcq Answer Grid

Question

I'm trying to create beautiful Mcq (Multiple Choice Question) Answer Grid so could someone help me please to improve it with the following needs:

• Add Arguments to get automatic row-column numbers in grid table
• to mark correct answer automatic with \ding{53}

The input would resemble \McqAnswerGrid{<number of questions>}{<number of choices>}{<correct cells>} where the <number of choices> should be alphabetically enumerated and <correct cells> is a list of lists containing possible correct choices.

Here is an example of input of arguments you can make your own or adapt with that one:

• Indicate all the answers that apply

  \McqAnswerGrid{6}{6}{ {1,2,3},{1,6},{1,3},{2,3},{2,4},{2,4} }
  

  implies we have 6 question with 6 choices A, B, C, D, E, and F where answers that apply to

  • Question 1 are 1, 2, and 3

  • Question 2 are 1, and 6

  • Question 3 are 1, and 3

  • Question 4 are 2, and 3

  • Question 5 are 2, and 4

  • Question 6 are 2, and 4

  

• Select one answer choice

  \McqAnswerGrid{5}{4}{ {1},{1},{3},{2},{4} }
  

  implies we have 5 question with 4 choices A, B, C, and D where the correct answer for

  • Question 1 is 1

  • Question 2 is 1

  • Question 3 is 3

  • Question 4 is 2

  • Question 5 is 4

  

Note that most books provide 4 choices for Mcq math, while others may provide 5 or 6 at most, so the maximum number of choices will be 6 at least and for the maximum number of questions 80 at least.

At first I tried with tikz and after that tabular but it takes lot of time to fill it manually.

Here is my code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\newcounter{row}
\newcounter{col}
\usepackage{tabu}
\usepackage{pifont}
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=.4]
  \begin{scope}
    \draw (0, 0) grid (5,10);
  \end{scope}
    \end{tikzpicture}
        \end{center}
        \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
N & A & B & C & D & E & F \\ \hline
1 & \ding{53}  & \ding{53}  &  \ding{53}   & & &   \\ \hline
2 &  \ding{53} &   &   &   & & \ding{53}\\ \hline
3 & \ding{53}   &   & \ding{53}  &  & &   \\ \hline
4 &   &  \ding{53} & \ding{53}   &  & &  \\ \hline
5 &   & \ding{53}   &  & \ding{53}  & &  \\ \hline
6 &   & \ding{53}   &  & \ding{53}  & &  \\ \hline
\end{tabular}

\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
N & A & B & C & D  \\ \hline
1 & \ding{53}  &  &   &    \\ \hline
2 &  \ding{53} &   &   &   \\ \hline
3 &   &   & \ding{53}  &    \\ \hline
4 &   &  \ding{53} &   &    \\ \hline
5 &   &   &  & \ding{53}   \\ \hline
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

If someone can't make it with this input of arguments you can come up with your one solution to cover that problem.

Answer 1

The following example provides \McqAnswerGrid{<rows>}{<columns>}{<answer spec>} and a duplicate \McqOneAnswerGrid (purely because they may mean different things). They're a duplicate of one another since they both use the same style input:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{multido,xparse}

\DeclareRobustCommand{\correctsymbol}{$\times$}

\makeatletter
\NewDocumentCommand{\row@column@element}
  { m }
  {\@namedef{row@element@\therow@cnt @#1}{\correctsymbol}}

\DeclareDocumentCommand{\process@columns}
  { > { \SplitList { , } } m }
  {\stepcounter{row@cnt}\ProcessList{#1}{\row@column@element}}%

\DeclareDocumentCommand{\process@rows}%
  { > { \SplitList { , } } m }
  {\ProcessList{#1}{\process@columns}}

\newcounter{row@cnt}
\newcommand{\McqAnswerGrid}[3]{{%
  \def\row@elements{N}% Top left entry
  \let\tabularline\relax% Create non-expandable \tabularline (will be used later)
  \multido{\iColumn=1+1}{#2}{% Create first row
    \protected@xdef\row@elements{\row@elements & \@Alph{\iColumn}}}%
  % Construct the top row of answer grid
  \g@addto@macro\row@elements{ \\ \tabularline}% Add line
  \setcounter{row@cnt}{0}%
  \process@rows{#3}%
  \multido{\iRow=1+1}{#1}{%
    \protected@xdef\row@elements{\row@elements \iRow}
    \multido{\iColumn=1+1}{#2}{%
      \protected@xdef\row@elements{\row@elements & 
        \ifcsname row@element@\iRow @\iColumn\endcsname
          \csname row@element@\iRow @\iColumn\endcsname
        \fi}%
    }%
    \g@addto@macro\row@elements{ \\ \tabularline}%
  }%
  % Set actual answer grid
  \begin{tabular}{ | *{\number\numexpr#2+1}{c|} }
    \hline
    \global\let\tabularline\hline% Make sure \tabularline is equivalent to \hline
    \row@elements
  \end{tabular}
}}

\let\McqOneAnswerGrid\McqAnswerGrid

\makeatother

\begin{document}

\McqAnswerGrid{6}{6}{ {1,2,3},{1,6},{1,3},{2,3},{2,4},{2,4} }

\bigskip

\McqOneAnswerGrid{5}{4}{ {1},{1},{3},{2},{4} }

\end{document}

We construct the tabular using a series of loops that information from a list-processor. The list processor creates a macro \row@element@<row>@<column> containing the \correctsymbol if it is specified. Else, the macro doesn't exist. During expansion of the tabular construction, the existence of \row@element@<row>@<column> is tested and subsequently used.

Answer 2

Here's a LaTeX 3 solution.

It has the requested 3 arguments for the number of rows, the number of columns and the cells to be marked. It also has an optional argument that specifies the number of the first question in the table. That way you can "split" long tables in multiple shorter ones and place them next to each other.

\McqAnswerGrid     {5} {6}{ {1,2,3},{1,6},{1,3},{2,3},{2,4} }
\hspace{1cm}
\McqAnswerGrid [6] {5} {6}{ {1,2,3},{1,6},{1,3},{2,3},{2,4} }

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xparse}
\usepackage{pifont}

\ExplSyntaxOn
\NewDocumentCommand{\McqAnswerGrid}{ O{1} m m m }{
    \begin{tabular}{|c*{#3}{|c}|}
        \hline
        \tl_clear:N \l_tmpa_tl
        \tl_put_right:Nn \l_tmpa_tl {N}
        \int_step_inline:nnnn {1} {1} {#3} {\tl_put_right:Nn \l_tmpa_tl {& \int_to_Alph:n{##1}}}
        \tl_put_right:Nn \l_tmpa_tl {\\\hline}
        \int_step_inline:nnnn {#1} {1} {#1+#2-1} {
            \seq_set_split:Nnn \splitted_seq{,}{#4}
            \exp_args:NNnx \seq_set_split:Nnn \splitted_again {,} {\seq_item:Nn \splitted_seq {##1-#1+1}}
            \tl_put_right:Nn \l_tmpa_tl {##1}
            \int_step_inline:nnnn {1} {1} {#3} {
                \seq_if_in:NnTF \splitted_again {####1} {
                    \tl_put_right:Nn \l_tmpa_tl {& \ding{53}}
                } {
                    \tl_put_right:Nn \l_tmpa_tl {& }
                }
            }
            \tl_put_right:Nn \l_tmpa_tl {\\\hline}
        }
        \tl_use:N \l_tmpa_tl
    \end{tabular}
}
\ExplSyntaxOff

\begin{document}

    \McqAnswerGrid     {5} {6}{ {1,2,3},{1,6},{1,3},{2,3},{2,4} }
    \hspace{1cm}
    \McqAnswerGrid [6] {5} {6}{ {1,2,3},{1,6},{1,3},{2,3},{2,4} }

\end{document}