[Tex/LaTex] How to reduce the space between nodes

nodestikz-pgf

I want to make the nodes in the following vector-illustration touch each other. But no matter what I do to text width or node distance the distance between the nodes stays the same.

\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathreplacing}

\tikzstyle{cell} = [rectangle, draw, text width=1.3cm ]
\tikzstyle{capx} = [rectangle, draw, text width=1.3cm, color=black!40  ]

\begin{tikzpicture}[
    every node/.style={text centered,  minimum height=1.5em, minimum width=1.5cm,node distance=0pt},
    background rectangle/.style={fill=black!10},show background rectangle,
    ]

   \node at (10,0) [capx] (n5) {leer};
   \node at (12,0) [capx] (n6) {leer};
   \node at (14,0) [capx] (n7) {leer};

   \node at (0,0) [cell] (n0) {wert};    
   \node at (2,0) [cell] (n1) {wert};
   \node at (4,0) [cell] (n2) {wert};
   \node at (6,0) [cell] (n3) {wert};
   \node at (8,0) [cell] (n4) {wert};

\draw [decorate,decoration={brace,amplitude=10pt},xshift=-4pt,yshift=0pt]
  (-0.6,0.5) -- (8.8,0.5) node [black,midway,xshift=-0.5cm,yshift=18pt] 
  {\hskip6ex size()};

\draw [decorate,decoration={brace,amplitude=10pt,mirror},xshift=-4pt,yshift=0pt,color=black!40]
  (-0.6,-0.5) -- (14.8,-0.5) node [black,midway,xshift=-0.5cm,yshift=-18pt,color=black!40] 
  {\hskip6ex capacity()};

\end{tikzpicture}

bad vector

Best Answer

Use the positioning library and place your nodes using right= of <name>:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds,positioning}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathreplacing}

\tikzset{
  cell/.style = {rectangle, draw, text width=1.3cm,outer sep=0pt},
  capx/.style = {rectangle, draw, text width=1.3cm, color=black!40,outer sep=0pt}
}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[
    every node/.style={align=center, minimum height=1.5em, minimum width=1.5cm,node distance=0pt},
    background rectangle/.style={fill=black!10},show background rectangle,
    ]


   \node at (0,0) [cell] (n0) {wert};    
   \node[right=of n0,cell] (n1) {wert};
   \node[right=of n1,cell] (n2) {wert};
   \node[right=of n2,cell] (n3) {wert};
   \node[right=of n3,cell] (n4) {wert};

   \node[right=of n4,capx] (n5) {leer};
   \node[right=of n5,capx] (n6) {leer};
   \node[right=of n6,capx] (n7) {leer};

\draw[
   decorate,
  decoration={brace,amplitude=10pt}
]
  ([yshift=4pt]n0.north west) -- 
  node [black,yshift=18pt] {size()}
  ([yshift=4pt]n4.north east) ;

\draw[
  decorate,
  decoration={brace,amplitude=10pt,mirror},
  color=black!40
]
  ([yshift=-4pt]n0.south west) -- 
    node [black,yshift=-18pt,color=black!40]  {capacity()}
  ([yshift=-4pt]n7.south east) ;

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Some remarks:

\tikzstyle is deprecated; I changed to \tikzset instead.
Use the anchors of the existing nodes to place the braces.
Set outer sep to 0pt so the lines of the nodes nicely overlap.
Notice that I also changed the placement of the nodes for the braces.

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)

TikZ-PGF – How to Increase Horizontal Distance Between Nodes

You can specify the relative x and y positions separately using the tikz library positioning

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  [align=center,node distance=2cm]  %< no need of this global node separation
  \node[label=above:A] (A)                      
       {(1)};
  \node[label=above:B1] (B1) [above right=0.7cm and 4cm of A]
       {($m+1$)};
  \node[label=above:B2] (B2) [below right=0.7cm and 4cm of A]
       {($m+1$)};
  \node[label=above:C] (C)  [below right=0.7cm and 4cm of B1]
       {($2m-1$)};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}