TikZ (trees): How can I align children nodes in a tree on the same level

Question

I try to align the children in a tree in a way, that all children are vertically aligned. That's the code I have so far. You can see my problem below the node "I'm a very very very long text".

The child is anchored to the center of it's parent. However, I want the level always with a fixed position to it's parent so that all children on the same level have always the same indent.

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{trees}

\begin{document}
\tikzstyle{every node}=[draw=black,thick,anchor=west]
\tikzstyle{selected}=[draw=red,fill=red!30]
\tikzstyle{optional}=[dashed,fill=gray!50]
\begin{tikzpicture}[%
  grow via three points={one child at (0.5,-0.7) and
  two children at (0.5,-0.7) and (0.5,-1.4)},
  edge from parent path={(\tikzparentnode.south) |- (\tikzchildnode.west)}]
  \node {texmf}
    child { node {doc}}     
    child { node {fonts}}
    child { node {I'm a very very very long text}
        child { node {I want to have the same indent like generic}}
        child { node [optional] {I want to have the same indent like latex}}
        child { node {I want to have the same indent like plain}}}
    child [missing] {}              
    child [missing] {}              
    child [missing] {}
    child { node [selected] {tex}
        child { node {generic}}
        child { node [optional] {latex}}
        child { node {plain}}
    };
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

dexteritas · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-26T15:09:43.257

Adaptations:

added tikz option: growth parent anchor=south west (default was south)
changed tikz option: edge from parent path to starting point ([xshift=2mm] \tikzparentnode.south west)
changed the grow points to avoid overlapping
Use tikzset instead of tikzstyle (see Should \tikzset or \tikzstyle be used to define TikZ styles?).

Code:

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{trees}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[%
        every node/.style={draw=black,thick,anchor=west},
        selected/.style={draw=red,fill=red!30},
        optional/.style={dashed,fill=gray!50},
        %
        grow via three points={one child at (0.5,-0.5) and
        two children at (0.5,-0.5) and (0.5,-1.3)},
        edge from parent path={([xshift=2mm] \tikzparentnode.south west) |- (\tikzchildnode.west)},
        growth parent anchor=south west
    ]
        \node {texmf}
            child { node {doc}}     
            child { node {fonts}}
            child { node {I'm a very very very long text}
                child { node {I want to have the same indent like generic}}
                child { node [optional] {I want to have the same indent like latex}}
                child { node {I want to have the same indent like plain}}
            }
            child [missing] {}              
            child [missing] {}              
            child [missing] {}
            child { node [selected] {tex}
                child { node {generic}}
                child { node [optional] {latex}}
                child { node {plain}}
            };
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Result:

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 26 '19 at 16:37

Just for fun. Since this tree can be found almost literally in the forest manual, I thought it might be worthwhile to add it here.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[edges]{forest}
\begin{document}
\tikzset{selected/.style={draw=red,fill=red!30},
        optional/.style={dashed,fill=gray!50}}
\begin{forest}
for tree={draw,grow'=0,folder}
[texmf
 [doc]
 [fonts]
 [I'm a very very very long text
  [I want to have the same indent like generic]
  [I want to have the same indent like latex,optional]
  [I want to have the same indent like plain]
 ] 
 [tex,selected
  [generic]
  [latex,optional]
  [plain]
 ]
]
\end{forest}
\end{document}

This works out of the box and does not require any missing children nor other nudging.

TikZ (trees): How can I align children nodes in a tree on the same level

2 Answers2