[Tex/LaTex] Creating TikZ Node Using Macro

macrostikz-pgf

I'm trying to create a linked list using TikZ. I currently have this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{chains,shapes}

\newcommand{chainlabel}[2]{\path [<-, draw, shorten >=10pt] #1 |- node [at end] {#2} ++(-1,1);}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[every node/.style={rectangle split, rectangle split parts=2, rectangle split horizontal}, node distance=1em, start chain, 
 every join/.style={->, shorten <=-4.5pt}]

 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 1  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 7  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 5  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 2  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] {};

 \chainlabel{chain-1.one north}{head};
\end{tikzpicture}  


\end{document}

The problem is with the chainlabel command. I'm getting all kinds of errors about missing control sequences. I have read somewhere that there needs to be some sort of expandafter somewhere but I'm not sure how to work with it.

p.s. The idea behind chainlabel is that we can pass a coordinate to the command and a label and it will label the node with the provided text.

Best Answer

You had some errors in the definition of your command: you forgot the initial backslash (it's \chainlabel instead of chainlabel) and, since you used \path #1 |- ... the first argument should have parentheses, unless you used \path (#1) |- ..., as I did in my example below:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{chains,shapes}

\newcommand{\chainlabel}[2]{\path [<-, draw, shorten >=10pt] (#1) |- node [at end] {#2} ++(-1,1);}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[every node/.style={rectangle split, rectangle split parts=2, rectangle split horizontal}, node distance=1em, start chain, 
 every join/.style={->, shorten <=-4.5pt}]

 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 1  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 7  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 5  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 2  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] {};
\chainlabel{chain-1.one north}{head};
\end{tikzpicture}  

\end{document}

enter image description here

Perhaps you can add some minimum height to the rectangle split so even if empty they will have an uniform size:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{chains,shapes}

\newcommand{\chainlabel}[2]{\path [<-, draw, shorten >=10pt] (#1) |- node [at end] {#2} ++(-1,1);}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[every node/.style={rectangle split, rectangle split parts=2, rectangle split horizontal,minimum height=14pt}, node distance=1em, start chain,
 every join/.style={->, shorten <=-4.5pt}]

 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 1  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 7  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 5  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] { 2  };
 \node[draw, on chain, join] {};
\chainlabel{chain-1.one north}{head};
\end{tikzpicture}  

\end{document}

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Rotate a node but not its content: the case of the ellipse decoration

The source of the difficulty is that ellipses are constructed in a particular way in TikZ. They are paths that start from the x-axis and proceed counter-clockwise around their centre. The vast majority of the time, the exact parametrisation doesn't matter. You appear to have found the one situation where it does!

In the actual question, you only want to be able to mirror the ellipse, and so draw it starting from the negative x-axis (the title of the question suggests a more flexible approach). That's actually not too hard since we can exploit the symmetry of the ellipse. The key is to provide it with a negative x-radius, since then it will start from the negative x-axis (and proceed clockwise, but we could correct for that by negating the y-radius as well). To do this, we interrupt the call from the node shape to the drawing command and flip the sign of the x-radius. The simplest way to do this is to redefine the \pgfpathellipse macro to do the negation and then call the original macro. The following code does this.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations,shapes,decorations.markings}
\makeatletter
\let\origpgfpathellipse=\pgfpathellipse
\def\revpgfpathellipse#1#2#3{%
  #2%
  \pgf@xa=-\pgf@x
  \origpgfpathellipse{#1}{\pgfqpoint{\pgf@xa}{0pt}}{#3}}
\makeatother

\tikzset{
  reversed ellipse/.style={
    ellipse,
    reverse the ellipse%
  },
  reverse the ellipse/.code={
    \let\pgfpathellipse=\revpgfpathellipse
  }
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[ellipse,
  draw,
  postaction={
    decorate,
    decoration={
      markings,
      mark=at position 1 with {
        \arrow[line width=5pt,blue]{>}
      }
    }
  }
] at (0,0) {hello world};

\node[reversed ellipse,
  draw,
  postaction={
    decorate,
    decoration={
      markings,
      mark=at position 1 with {
        \arrow[line width=5pt,blue]{>}
      }
    }
  }
] at (0,-2) {hello world};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Here's the result:

rotated ellipse

(the arrow got clipped, but you can see where it lies)

[Tex/LaTex] How to define the default vertical distance between nodes

I don't really get the question so I hope this is what you wanted. If you include a full document (such that we copy paste and see the problem on our systems) things are much more easier.

Here, you can change the default setting within a scope but your block style had a node distance which was resetting every time it is issued. I've made it 2mm such that we can see the difference easier.

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows,shapes.geometric,positioning}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[decision/.style={diamond, draw, text width=4.5em, text badly centered, node distance=3.5cm, inner sep=0pt},
                    block/.style   ={rectangle, draw, text width=6em, text centered, rounded corners, minimum height=4em, minimum height=2em},
                    cloud/.style   ={draw, ellipse, minimum height=2em},
                    line/.style    ={draw,-latex'},
                    node distance = 1cm, 
                    auto]
    \node [block] (1st) {1st};
    \node [block, right= of 1st]  (2nd1) {2nd1};
\begin{scope}[node distance=2mm and 10mm]%Here we change it for everything inside this scope
    \node [block, above= of 2nd1] (2nd2) {2nd2};
    \node [block, below= of 2nd1] (2nd3) {2nd3};
    \node [block, right= of 2nd1] (3rd1) {3rd1};
    \node [block, above= of 3rd1] (3rd2) {3rd2};
    \node [block, above= of 3rd2] (3rd3) {3rd3};
\end{scope}
    \node [block, below= of 3rd1] (3rd4) {3rd4};
    \node [block, below= of 3rd4] (3rd5) {3rd5};

    \path [line] (1st) -- (2nd1);
    \path [line] (2nd1) -- (2nd2);
    \path [line] (2nd1) -- (2nd3);
    \path [line] (2nd2) -- (3rd3);
    \path [line] (2nd1) -- (3rd1);
    \path [line] (1st) -- (2nd1);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Rotate a node but not its content: the case of the ellipse decoration

[Tex/LaTex] How to define the default vertical distance between nodes

Related Question