[Tex/LaTex] Extra vertical space after \hline causes a gap in the right border of an array

Question

I wanted to put a bit of space after an \hline in an array; the main suggestion floating round the Internet seems to be to use

\hline \\ [-1.5ex]

Unfortunately, this causes a gap in the line on the RHS of the array. A minimal example is:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
$\begin{array}{|l|l|}%
\hline
& TEXT\\
\hline \\[-1.5ex]
&TEXT
\\\hline
\end{array}$
\end{document}

Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

Rather than fiddle with the properties of \hline, it's better -- in your case -- to provide typographic "struts": either a "top strut," which provides vertical spacing above the line on which it's placed, or a "bottom strut," which provides vertical spacing below the line on which it's placed. This idea is not original to me; it goes back (at least) to an article published by Claudio Beccari in TeX and TUG News in 1993. What's nifty about this approach is that one can place both a top strut and a bottom strut on a given line of an array or tabular environment.

The following MWE shows how this may be done. Note that I've switched from array to tabular in order to pare things down to the bare minimum; the vertical spacing issues related to \hline are the same for both environments.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
% Define typographic struts, as suggested by Claudio Beccari
%   in an article in TeX and TUG News, Vol. 2, 1993.
\newcommand\Tstrut{\rule{0pt}{2.6ex}}         % = `top' strut
\newcommand\Bstrut{\rule[-0.9ex]{0pt}{0pt}}   % = `bottom' strut

\begin{document}
With struts on the left, without struts on the right:

\begin{tabular}[t]{|l|}
\hline
TEXT\Tstrut\Bstrut\\ % top *and* bottom struts
\hline
TEXT\Tstrut\\        % top strut only
TEXT\Bstrut\\        % bottom strut only
\hline
\end{tabular}
\quad
\begin{tabular}[t]{|l|}
\hline
TEXT\\ 
\hline
TEXT\\    
TEXT\\      
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}