(x)ifthen in TikZ

Question

I am searching for a way to conditionally handle some items in a TikZ \foreach specially using an \ifthenelse condition. However, the compiler responds

! Undefined control sequence.
<argument> \isin

when processing this document.

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz, xifthen}

\newcommand\groupedges[2]{
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \foreach \name/\position in {a/30, b/40, c/20}
      \node (\name) at (\position:5cm) {\name};
    \foreach \name/\position in {d/120, e/150, f/170, g/90, h/100}
      \node (\name) at (\position:5cm) {\name};
    \node (left) at (-1, 0) {left};
    \node (right) at (1, 0) {right};
    \foreach \name in {#1}
      \path (\ifthenelse{\isin{\name}{#2}}{right}{left}) edge (\name);
  \end{tikzpicture}
}

\begin{document}
  \groupedges{a,b,d,e,g,h}{abc}
\end{document}

I initially thought of expressing the conditional with pgfkeys, but found this to be too cumbersome, especially when used in a \newcommand, which I need for the more complex intended case this serves as an example for.

I also tried to implement it using pure TeX, which has an \ifin@ conditional. This results in the same error.

Are TikZ and ifthen (or xifthen) combinable? Is there an easy pgfkeys or pure TeX solution? Or may there even be more suggestions to implement decisions on the \foreach elements?

You can’t unexpandable stuff in a coordinate expression, see: Computing value using pgfmath for use in coordinates? and How to draw a circle whose radius is a multiple of the distance of two points in TikZ? and Numbering nodes in a for loop — Qrrbrbirlbel, Nov 14 '13 at 01:26

score 4 · Answer 1 · 2017-09-03T13:36:39.873

edit (2017): second half of answer was broken since xint 1.1 (2014/10/28) as package xint does not load xinttools since then. Code updated to use directly package xinttools.

Quite probably, the issue is with the (non) expandability of these tests. But you can do this [thanks to the moderator who corrected the edge, I had copied pasted from the OP without double-check]

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz, xifthen}

\newcommand\groupedges[2]{
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \foreach \name/\position in {a/30, b/40, c/20}
      \node (\name) at (\position:5cm) {\name};
    \foreach \name/\position in {d/120, e/150, f/170, g/90, h/100}
      \node (\name) at (\position:5cm) {\name};
    \node (left) at (-1, 0) {left};
    \node (right) at (1, 0) {right};
    \foreach \name in {#1}
      {\ifthenelse{\isin{\name}{#2}}{\path (right) edge (\name);}
                                    {\path (left)  edge (\name);}}
  \end{tikzpicture}
}


\begin{document}\thispagestyle{empty}%
  \groupedges{a,b,d,e,g,h}{abc}
\end{document}

(updated image)

But, is apparent, this does not work as expected. I thus was sort of reluctantly coerced into again making propaganda for xint :):

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz, xifthen}
\usepackage{xinttools}

\newcommand\groupedges[2]{%
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \foreach \name/\position in {a/30, b/40, c/20}
      \node (\name) at (\position:5cm) {\name};
    \foreach \name/\position in {d/120, e/150, f/170, g/90, h/100}
      \node (\name) at (\position:5cm) {\name};
    \node (left) at (-1, 0) {left};
    \node (right) at (1, 0) {right};
    % \foreach \name in {#1}
    %   {\ifthenelse{\isin{\name}{#2}}{\path (right) edge (\name);}
    %                                 {\path (left)  edge (\name);}}
    \xintFor ##1 in {#1}
    \do  {\ifthenelse{\isin{##1}{#2}}{\path (right)}
                                     {\path (left)}  edge (##1);}
  \end{tikzpicture}%
}


\begin{document}\thispagestyle{empty}%
  \groupedges{a,b,d,e,g,h}{abc}
\end{document}

The conditional does not seem to work right. All the nodes are still connected to left, while a and b should in fact be connected to right. — XZS, Nov 14 '13 at 00:47
@XZS I had copied pasted the original code without double-checking so I did not become aware of the problem, sorry. It seems the problem is more with \foreach than with the conditional? I don't know, but I have added a method not using \foreach, and it works. — , Nov 14 '13 at 07:38

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 11 '14 at 09:21

Two remarks :

\isin seems impossible to put inside path command. So you have to do (as proposed by @jfbu) :

    {\ifthenelse{...}{\path (right) edge (\name);}
                     {\path (left)  edge (\name);}}

to be able to use \isin{\name}{#2} you have to expand \name befor to pass it to \isin like this \expandafter\isin\name{#2} so finaly you can do this :

    {\ifthenelse{\expandafter\isin\name{#2}}{\path (right) edge (\name);}
                                            {\path (left)  edge (\name);}}

Here is the full code that works for me :

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz, xifthen}

\newcommand\groupedges[2]{
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \foreach \name/\position in {a/30, b/40, c/20}
      \node (\name) at (\position:5cm) {\name};
    \foreach \name/\position in {d/120, e/150, f/170, g/90, h/100}
      \node (\name) at (\position:5cm) {\name};
    \node (left) at (-1, 0) {left};
    \node (right) at (1, 0) {right};
    \foreach \name in {#1}
      {\ifthenelse{\expandafter\isin\name{#2}}{\path (right) edge (\name);}
                                    {\path (left)  edge (\name);}}
  \end{tikzpicture}
}

\begin{document}
  \groupedges{a,b,d,e,g,h}{abc}
\end{document}

(x)ifthen in TikZ

2 Answers2

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