Adjusting space between array rows and columns

Question

Output

\documentclass[english]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[latin9]{inputenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\begin{document}
% ...
\[
\begin{array}{ccccc}
x(1) & = & \frac{x(0)}{1} & = & x(0)\\
x(2) & = & \frac{x(1)}{2} & = & \frac{x(0)}{2}\\
x(3) & = & \frac{x(2)}{3} & = & \frac{x(0)}{2.3}\\
x(4) & = & \frac{x(3)}{4} & = & \frac{x(0)}{4!}\\
 &  &  &  & \vdots\\
x(n) & = & \frac{x(n-1)}{n} & = & \frac{x(0)}{n!}
\end{array}
\]
% ...
\end{document}

Because of the fractions in the array cells, array elements are vertically too close to each other, they are literally touching to each other. Also the horizontal spacing is too much as you see in the image (screen shot from the output PDF file).

How do I make these cell-spacings look better?

You can also add increase/decrease space between rows by supplying a positive/negative argument to \\, i.e. \\[2pt] and \\[-2pt] resp. add/remove 2pt of vertical space. — BlenderBender, Nov 14 '18 at 16:06
Shouldn't it be x(n-1)/n in the middle column, not x(n-1)/n! — Lucas, Nov 30 '18 at 01:49
Related question: spacing - Column and row padding in tables - TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange — user202729, Jun 14 '22 at 12:03

score 81 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 04 '17 at 09:29

81

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
% ...
\[\arraycolsep=1.4pt\def\arraystretch{2.2}
\begin{array}{ccccc}
x(1) & = & \dfrac{x(0)}{1} & = & x(0)\\
x(2) & = & \dfrac{x(1)}{2} & = & \dfrac{x(0)}{2}\\
x(3) & = & \dfrac{x(2)}{3} & = & \dfrac{x(0)}{2.3}\\
x(4) & = & \dfrac{x(3)}{4} & = & \dfrac{x(0)}{4!}\\
 &  &  &  & \vdots\\
x(n) & = & \dfrac{x(n-1)}{n!} & = & \dfrac{x(0)}{n!}
\end{array}
\]
% ...
\end{document}

enter image description here

or for a left aligned:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
% ...
\[\arraycolsep=1.4pt\def\arraystretch{2.2}
\begin{array}{rll}
x(1) &= \dfrac{x(0)}{1} &= x(0)\\
x(2) &= \dfrac{x(1)}{2} &= \dfrac{x(0)}{2}\\
x(3) &= \dfrac{x(2)}{3} &= \dfrac{x(0)}{2.3}\\
x(4) &= \dfrac{x(3)}{4} &= \dfrac{x(0)}{4!}\\
     &                  & \vdots\\
x(n) &= \dfrac{x(n-1)}{n!} &= \dfrac{x(0)}{n!}
\end{array}
\]
% ...
\end{document}

enter image description here

edited Jun 04 '17 at 09:29

Troy

13,741

answered Mar 20 '13 at 20:48

I tried applying your solution. It gives "Undefined control sequence." error on the dfrac commands. When I convert dfracs back to fracs the cells are separated as in your answer. I couldn't add the \usepackage{amsmath} command in my code, because LyX doesn't let me edit the source code. Could this error with dfrac be because of that? How should I do? – hkBattousai Mar 21 '13 at 20:02
In Menu > Document > Settings... > LaTeX Preamble I added \usepackage{amsmath} in that large text box. Now when I try to preview my code in PDF it says LaTeX Error: 'amsmath.sty' not found.. I'm stuck, I don't know what to do. – hkBattousai Mar 21 '13 at 20:08
1

@hkBattousai Herbert's solution might not work except when putting the whole "array" environment into an ERT/TeX code. Probably you want it to work with the "array" environment provided by LyX. It seems not possible to use { and } in a math environment without making a global def. Hence, you can move the part \arraycol....etch{2.2} outside of the math environment. As ERT put {\arraycolsep=1.4pt\def\arraystretch{2.2} (note the opening {) before the math environment and put } as ERT after the math environment. The opening { and the closing } will keep the change local. Working? – e-birk Mar 21 '13 at 20:10
@hkBattousai If you want to tell LyX to definitely use the amsmath package go to Document > Settings... > Math Options deselect the "automatically usage" and select the other one. – e-birk Mar 21 '13 at 20:14
1

@e-birk: You can have everything inside the ERT mode! And \arraycolsep=1.4pt\def\arraystretch{2.2} will be enough. But without the LyX code I cannot say why it dosn't work for him – Mar 21 '13 at 20:19
@Herbert As I said putting everything into ERT is no problem. But how to use your approach while using the built-in "array" environment of LyX at the same time? – e-birk Mar 21 '13 at 20:27
@e-birk: Open math-Display math and before inserting the matrix (array) hit ctrl-L and insert \arraycolsep=1.4pt\def\arraystretch{2.2}. Then move the cursor outside of the ERT and insert the matrix. That's all – Mar 21 '13 at 20:36
@Herbert Okay, then I have discovered a bug. If I type \array....{2.2} manually then it works. But if I copy and paste \array....{2.2} then the \def will be converted and preceded by \global\long. Right? – e-birk Mar 21 '13 at 20:52
1

@e-birk: Copy and paste with everything bewtween \[ ... \] works without a problem. LyX 2.0.3 – Mar 21 '13 at 20:58
@Herbert I copy only \arraycolsep=1.4pt\def\arraystretch{2.2} from a plain text editor. "Insert > Math > Display Formula", Crtl-L, Backspace (to remove the \ - it does not matter whether now or later), Ctrl-V. What does "View Source" show? For me, \arraycolsep=1.4pt\global\long\def\arraystretch{2.2}. LyX 2.0.5.1 – e-birk Mar 21 '13 at 21:10
The line \arraycolsep=1.4pt\def\arraystretch{2.2} must come immediately before \begin{array}... – Alec Jacobson Jan 27 '14 at 16:33
This solution does not work well for anything with matrices in them unfortunately. Any way to exclude matrix spacing from this? – drfrankie Jul 21 '21 at 02:11

score 13 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 04 '17 at 09:29

Use the alignat environment from the amsmath package. You can also adjust the space between lines with the \setstretch command from the setspace package.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{setspace}
\begin{document}
{\setstretch{2.25}
\begin{alignat*}{2}
x(1)   &=\frac{x(0)}{1}    &&= x(0)\\
x(2)   &=\frac{x(1)}{2}    &&= \frac{x(0)}{2}\\
x(3)   &=\frac{x(2)}{3}    &&= \frac{x(0)}{2.3}\\
x(4)   &=\frac{x(3)}{4}    &&= \frac{x(0)}{4!}\\
\vdots &                   && \\
x(n)   &=\frac{x(n-1)}{n!} &&= \frac{x(0)}{n!}
\end{alignat*}}
\end{document}

sample output

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 08 '14 at 16:37

For the sake of completeness, you can also adjust the vertical space between two lines of the alignat* environment (this is also true for the align* environment) by specifying the spacing to use inside square brackets (for example [.5cm]) right after the newline symbol \\. Note that this value can also be a negative measurement if you want to reduce the vertical space between two lines. This is especially useful to individually correct the spacing between lines, such as when the line heights differ from one line to another (for example, all lines contain a fraction except one).

The following example is not made to be pretty or practical, but merely to show an example.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{setspace}
\begin{document}
{\setstretch{2.25}
\begin{alignat*}{2}
x(1)   &=\frac{x(0)}{1}    &&= x(0)\\[.5cm]
x(2)   &=\frac{x(1)}{2}    &&= \frac{x(0)}{2}\\[2cm]
x(3)   &=\frac{x(2)}{3}    &&= \frac{x(0)}{2.3}\\[-3mm]
x(4)   &=\frac{x(3)}{4}    &&= \frac{x(0)}{4!}\\
\vdots &                   && \\
x(n)   &=\frac{x(n-1)}{n!} &&= \frac{x(0)}{n!}
\end{alignat*}}
\end{document}

Output for code above.

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 21 '16 at 14:33

1

In LyX, I added \usepackage{amsmath} to Document -> Settings -> LaTeX Preamble. Then instead of using array environment, which generates

I change to aligned environment, which generates a much better looking equation array and spacing

There are other discussions on the left alignments that seem very complicated. But what I found in my case is that, if I start a cell with the = sign, the LaTeX compiler will figure out how to align to the left.

edited Jun 21 '16 at 14:33

Werner

603,163

answered Jun 21 '16 at 14:13

Steve Lihn

111

You could achieve a similar result simply by using \displaystyle. – Alex Sep 24 '20 at 07:33

Adjusting space between array rows and columns

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