Vertical dotted column in matrix

Question

If I wanted to "draw" dots in entire row, I'd use for expample \hdotsfor{4}, but how can I "draw" an entire column with dots, I haven't found something like \vdotsfor. With \hdotsfor{5} we get this,

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{lmodern} % load a font with all the characters
\begin{document}
    $$ 
    \begin{bmatrix}
    x_{11}       & x_{12} & x_{13} & \dots & x_{1n} \\
    x_{21}       & x_{22} & x_{23} & \dots & x_{2n} \\
    \hdotsfor{5} \\
    x_{d1}       & x_{d2} & x_{d3} & \dots & x_{dn}
    \end{bmatrix}   
    $$

\end{document}

But how can I do something like this:

It would help to see some code. What environment are you using? — Steven B. Segletes, Apr 12 '16 at 18:45
Please make your code compilable (if possible), or at least complete it with \documentclass{...}, the required \usepackages, \begin{document}, and \end{document}. That may seem tedious to you, but think of the extra work it represents for TeX.SX users willing to give you a hand. Help them help you: remove that one hurdle between you and a solution to your problem. — erik, Apr 12 '16 at 22:58
@erik I'm very sorry. This is my first post at tex.sx. I wrote the all the code now. — Gjekask, Apr 13 '16 at 07:22
@Gjekask No worries, and welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look at our starter guide to familiarize yourself further with our format. I was just trying to point out that example code should be complete. It's a boilerplate response, so sorry if it came across as curt. — erik, Apr 13 '16 at 13:35

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 13 '16 at 07:22

You can get inspiration from the macro \vdotfill<number of lines> shown in this code:

\def\vdotfill#1{\vtop to0pt{\null \dimen0=#1\baselineskip\advance\dimen0 by-.4ex 
   \kern-1.6ex \cleaders\hbox{\lower.4ex\vbox to1ex{}.}\vskip\dimen0 \vss}}

$$
  \pmatrix{ x_{11} & x_{12} & x_{13} & \vdotfill4 & x_{1n} \cr
            x_{21} & x_{22} & x_{23} &            & x_{2n} \cr
            \multispan3 \dotfill     &            & \dotfill \cr
            x_{d1} & x_{d2} & x_{d3} &            & x_{dn} }
$$

\bye

F. Pantigny · Answer 2 · 2023-08-26T16:12:35.890

The package nicematrix provides (in its environments) a command \Vdotsfor.

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{nicematrix}
\begin{document}
[ 
\begin{pNiceMatrix}
x_{11}       & x_{12} & x_{13} & \Vdotsfor{4} & x_{1n} \
x_{21}       & x_{22} & x_{23} &        & x_{2n} \
             &       &        &       & \
x_{d1}       & x_{d2} & x_{d3} &        & x_{dn}
\end{pNiceMatrix}

]
\end{document}

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

This is probably a horrible idea because it is more a brute-force method, but here's how I would do it:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{matrix}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\matrix(m)[matrix of math nodes, row sep=2em, column sep=2em, text height=1.5ex, text depth=0.25ex]
{ x_{11} & x_{12} & x_{13} & \phantom{x_{21}} & x_{1n} \\
  x_{21} & x_{22} & x_{23} & \phantom{x_{21}} & x_{2n} \\
  \phantom{x_{21}} & \phantom{x_{21}} & \phantom{x_{21}} & \phantom{x_{21}} & \phantom{x_{21}} \\
  x_{d1} & x_{d2} & x_{d3} & \phantom{x_{21}} & x_{dn} \\ };
  \draw[loosely dotted] (m-3-1.west) -- (m-3-5.east);
  \draw[loosely dotted] (m-1-4.north) -- (m-4-4.south);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

If need be, you can also shorten either end of the lines with the "shorten <= xpt", "shorten >= xpt" option. And you can also embed this picture into an equation like this: Align an equation and a tikz picture with anchor and baseline

Vertical dotted column in matrix

3 Answers3