Referencing the contents of lasttikznode, and overlaying them on a node

Question

I am trying to solve How to rotate a composition of Tikz nodes correctly, without rotating the text of their labels?; and I found tikz pgf - Problem with "append after command" and "insert path".

This gave me the following idea - define a style, such that it simply places another node on top of the "current" one, with a colored background so the new node obscures the old, and with the same contents of the "current" node, but rotated. This is how far I got:

\documentclass{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\usetikzlibrary{fit}

% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/55722/problem-with-append-after-command-and-insert-path
\makeatletter
\def\mymacro{
\begin{scope}
% { % MUST have this group! or scope!
  \setbox\tikz@figbox=\box\pgfutil@voidb@x
  \node at (\tikzlastnode) [fill=yellow] {\rotatebox{180}{YY}}; %
% }
\end{scope}
}
\makeatother

\tikzstyle{drc} = [draw, rectangle, line width=1pt, align=center,
append after command={\pgfextra{\mymacro}},
% insert path={\pgfextra{\mymacro}}, % no \tikzlastnode
]

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[line width=3mm]
\node[drc] at (0,0) {\ \ A};
\node[drc] at (1,1) {B\ \ };
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

This is the output:

The problems/questions are:

• The appended node is behind the original node, so its fill cannot obscure the original node - any way to get it in front of the original node?
• I'm just having the letters YY for a test - but I'd rather "extract" the text of \tikzlastnode; however, it seems that \tikzlastnode is basically just the name of the last node, not an "object reference". In any case, is there a way to extract and reuse the text of \tikzlastnode?

Answer 1

I don't think there is an built in method way to save the box of the last node, so here's a quick and dirty way (and probably not robust):

\documentclass[tikz, border=5]{standalone}
\newbox\lastnodebox
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[every node/.style={draw,
  execute at begin node=\global\setbox\lastnodebox\hbox\bgroup,
  execute at end node=\egroup\copy\lastnodebox}]

\foreach \i [count=\y] in {A,...,F}
  \node at (0,-\y/2) {\box\lastnodebox \i};

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

---

EDIT: In respect to the OP example, even if this approach is used to add an additional node through append after command={\pgfextra{\mymacro}}, still the node appended is "behind" (and so will not "cover" the previous node). However, this approach can be used in a style directly, together with the turn environment from the rotating package to issue a rotation "on time", and as such "appending" or "overlaying" a second rotated node is unnecessary. So we can use:

\documentclass{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\usetikzlibrary{fit}
\usepackage{rotating} %tlmgr install rotating
\newbox\lastnodebox
\tikzstyle{drc} = [draw, rectangle, line width=1pt, align=center,]
\tikzstyle{drcr} = [drc,
execute at begin node=\begin{turn}{180}\global\setbox\lastnodebox\hbox\bgroup,
execute at end node=\egroup\copy\lastnodebox\end{turn},
]

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[line width=3mm]
\node[drc] at (0,0) {\ \ A\\A\ \ };
\node[drcr] at (1,1) {B\ \ \\\ \ B};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

... to obtain: