Diagonal dotted line in table

Question

I currently have the following table:

Which corresponds to the following code:

  \documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[font=small,labelfont=bf]{caption}

\usepackage[a4paper,top=2.5cm,bottom=2.5cm,left=2.5cm,right=2.5cm,marginparwidth=1.5cm]{geometry}
\linespread{1.5}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{threeparttable}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage[flushleft]{threeparttable}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[h!]
\ra{0.8}
\centering
\caption{bla }
\begin{tablenotes}
\renewcommand\baselinestretch{1}
\small
    \item Note: bla.   
\end{tablenotes}
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{8pt}
\begin{tabular}{l | c | c c c c }
\toprule
  \multicolumn{1}{c}{\bfseries Panel A: Countries}\\
   \hline
 & Average & Netherlands &  Germany & France & Belgium  \\ \hline
Netherlands & 3.83 &  &  &  &    \\
Germany  & 3.87 &  &  &  &    \\
France  & 3.95 &  &  &  &    \\
Belgium  & 3.91 &  &  &  &    \\
\midrule
 \multicolumn{1}{c}{\bfseries Panel B: Clients}\\
   \hline
 & Average & Advisory &  Execution Only &  &   \\\hline
Advisory & 3.86 &  &  &  &    \\
Execution Only & 3.78 &  &    &  &  \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}\label{tab:VarImportc}

\end{table} 
\end{document}

I would like to include two diagonal dashed lines on the right hand sides of both panels (i.e. from Netherlands-Netherlands to Belgium-Belgium and Advisory-Advisory to Exec-Exec).

Also, I was wondering how I can make the first column (Average) distinct from the RHS of the table? I now did it via vertical lines, but it doesn't look very nice.

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 29 '20 at 09:44

You can achieve this by placing a tikz coordinate in the relevant cells, using remember picture and overlay to then let you go back and draw lines after creating the table. For example (I've cut down your example to a MWE -- note that you are currently calling the threeparttable package twice, which you'll want to fix):

\documentclass{standalone}

\linespread{1.5}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{threeparttable}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{adjustbox}

\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}

\setlength{\tabcolsep}{8pt}
\begin{tabular}{l | c | c c c c }
\toprule
  \multicolumn{1}{c}{\bfseries Panel A: Countries}\\
   \hline
 & Average & Netherlands &  Germany & France & Belgium  \\ \hline
Netherlands & 3.83 & \tikz[remember picture,overlay]{\coordinate(Netherlands);} &  &  &    \\
Germany  & 3.87 &  &  &  &    \\
France  & 3.95 &  &  &  &    \\
Belgium  & 3.91 &  &  &  &  \tikz[remember picture,overlay]{\coordinate(Belgium);}  \\
\midrule
 \multicolumn{1}{c}{\bfseries Panel B: Clients}\\
   \hline
 & Average & Advisory &  Execution Only &  &   \\\hline
Advisory & 3.86 & \tikz[remember picture,overlay]{\coordinate(Advisory);} &  &  &    \\
Execution Only & 3.78 &  &  \tikz[remember picture,overlay]{\coordinate(Exec);}  &  &  \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}

\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
\draw[dashed](Netherlands) -- (Belgium);
\draw[dashed](Advisory) -- (Exec);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

This draws a dashed line from teh centre of the corresponding cells. You can move the start/finish points by specifying an xshift and/or yshift parameter in the \coordinate commands, for example:

\tikz[remember picture,overlay]{\coordinate[xshift=20pt](Netherlands);}

This answer is based on similar work done here: Add TikZ node at corner of a tabular cell

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 29 '20 at 09:45

At first, your code had some minor errors. Secondly, your questions are not clear to me! BTW, as far as I noticed from your text, I will do it with the aid of tikz package. see the following code:

  \documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[font=small,labelfont=bf]{caption}

\usepackage[a4paper,top=2.5cm,bottom=2.5cm,left=2.5cm,right=2.5cm,marginparwidth=1.5cm]{geometry}
\linespread{1.5}
\usepackage{booktabs}
%\usepackage{threeparttable}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage[flushleft]{threeparttable}


\newcommand{\tikzmark}[1]{\noindent\tikz[overlay,remember picture] \node (#1) {};}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[h!]
%\ra{0.8}
\centering
\caption{bla }
\begin{tablenotes}
\renewcommand\baselinestretch{1}
\small
    \item Note: bla.   
\end{tablenotes}
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{8pt}
\begin{tabular}{l || c || c c c c }
\toprule
  \multicolumn{1}{c}{\bfseries Panel A: Countries}\\
   \hline
 & Average & Netherlands &  Germany & France & Belgium  \\ \hline
Netherlands & 3.83 & \tikzmark{start}\phantom{Netherlands} &  &  &    \\
Germany  & 3.87 &  &  &  &    \\
France  & 3.95 &  &  &  &    \\
Belgium  & 3.91 &  &  &  &  \phantom{Belgium}\tikzmark{end}   \\
\midrule
 \multicolumn{1}{c}{\bfseries Panel B: Clients}\\
   \hline
 & Average & Advisory &  Execution Only &  &   \\\hline
Advisory & 3.86 &  &  &  &    \\
Execution Only & 3.78 &  &    &  &  \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}\label{tab:VarImportc}
\begin{tikzpicture}[overlay,remember picture]
    \draw [dashed] (start.north) -- (end.south);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{table} 
\end{document}

Thanks. Perhaps a dumb question: when I try to do the same for the lower panel, the diagonal line for panel A disappears. I added \tikzmark{start}\phantom{Advisory} and \phantom{Execution Only}\tikzmark{end}. Am I doing something wrong? — John, Jan 29 '20 at 10:09
You will need to give the coordinates different names, e.g. \tikzmark{start2}\phantom{Advisory} and \tikzmark{end2}\phantom{Execution Only}, and then draw another dashed line further down, \draw[dashed] (start2.north) -- (end2.south); — rbrignall, Jan 29 '20 at 10:12

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 21 '23 at 06:52

The environment {NiceTabular} of nicematrix is similar to the classical environment {tabular} (of the package array) but creates PGF/TikZ nodes under the cells, columns and rows. Then it's possible, in the so-called \CodeAfter to use TikZ to draw whatever rule you want.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[font=small,labelfont=bf]{caption}
\usepackage[a4paper,top=2.5cm,bottom=2.5cm,left=2.5cm,right=2.5cm,marginparwidth=1.5cm]{geometry}
\linespread{1.5}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{nicematrix,tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[h!]
\centering
\caption{my caption }
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{8pt}
\begin{NiceTabular}{l | c | c c c c }
    \toprule
    \Block[l]{1-}{\bfseries Panel A: Countries} \ \hline
     & Average & Netherlands &  Germany & France & Belgium  \ \hline
    Netherlands & 3.83 &  &  &  & \
    Germany  & 3.87 &  &  &  & \
    France  & 3.95 &  &  &  & \
    Belgium  & 3.91 &  &  &  & \
    \midrule
    \Block[l]{1-}{\bfseries Panel B: Clients} \ \hline
     & Average & Advisory &  Execution Only &  & \ \hline
    Advisory & 3.86 &  &  &  & \
    Execution Only & 3.78 &  & &  &  \
    \bottomrule
\CodeAfter
    \tikz \draw [dotted] (3-|3) -- (7-|7) (9-|3) -- (11-|7) ; 
\end{NiceTabular}\label{tab:VarImportc}
\end{table}
\end{document}

You need several compilations (because of the PGF/TikZ nodes used by nicematrix).

Diagonal dotted line in table

3 Answers3