Cfrgtkky

I'm trying to format a homework document, in which I want to write the questions and answers in a list. The question is followed by an answer, after which I want a slightly bigger gap before the next question and answer

begin{itemize}

    item[Q.] Question 1

    item[A.] Answer 1

    %space here

    item[Q.] Question 2

    item[A.] Answer 2

end{itemize}

Currently, I'm adding a space by using an empty list item (item). The output is shown below. Unfortunately, this creates a much larger space than I want. Is there a cleaner way to do this?

Very basic solution which doesn't require manual spacing:

Define two macros, question and answer, which do item[Q.] and item[A.], respectively. The question macro also inserts a vertical space of 0.25 cm if it's not in the first question, so the space between the list and the paragraph is right.

documentclass{article}



usepackage{lipsum}% Just for dummy text



makeatletter

newififfirstquestion

        firstquestiontrue

defquestion{%

  iffirstquestion

    firstquestionfalse

  else

    vspace{0.25cm}%

  fi

  item[Q.]}

defanswer{%

  item[A.]}

makeatother



begin{document}



lipsum[1]



begin{itemize}

    question Question 1

    answer Answer 1

    question Question 2

    answer Answer 2

    question Question 2

    answer Answer 2

    question Question 2

    answer Answer 2

end{itemize}



lipsum[1]



end{document}

and, following A. Ellet's suggestion, if you will always label each item with "Question /Answer ", you can use a counter:

documentclass{article}



usepackage{lipsum}% Just for dummy text



makeatletter

newcounter{QuestionCounter}

newififfirstquestion

        firstquestiontrue

defquestion{%

  iffirstquestion

    setcounter{QuestionCounter}{1}% Remove this to have the same numbering across different itemize's

    firstquestionfalse

  else

    vspace{0.25cm}%

  fi

  item[Q.] Question theQuestionCounter:space}

defanswer{%

  item[A.] Answer theQuestionCounter:space

  stepcounter{QuestionCounter}}

makeatother



begin{document}



lipsum[1]



begin{itemize}

    question What's your name?

    answer Foo

    question Where do you live?

    answer Bar

    question How old are you?

    answer -1

end{itemize}



lipsum[1]



end{document}

You have several options.

• The simplest is: Define your own command, say questionVSpace, to use a space between elements within a list. Observe that the definition of vertical space command may depend on the class you use.


• There are more elaborate ways to do it. I recommend using a command for doing so. This command should handle the vertical space automatically and should handle layout issues globally, e.g. if you want to change "Q." to "Question". A crude but more useful way is my second variant. This also allows to enumerate the question, see my code below.

These variants are implemented in the following MWE.

documentclass{article} 



%you can manually choose a space here if you do not like the predefined ones

%In case you want to use one of the predfined ones, say smallskip, you should still use questionVSpace and replace vspace{9ex} with smallskip

newcommand{questionVSpace}{vspace{9ex}}





newcounter{questionCounter}

newcommand{qAndA}[2]{

%The following code automatically adds the space unless it is the first question. 

ifnumvalue{questionCounter}>0

bigskip%you can choose a different space here.

fi

stepcounter{questionCounter}

% You could also change "Q." to "Q. thequestionCounter"

item[Q.] #1 

item[A.] #2

}



begin{document}

section{Variant A}

Test

begin{itemize}

    item[Q.] Question 1

    item[A.] Answer 1

    smallskip

    item[Q.] Question 2

    item[A.] Answer 2

    medskip

    item[Q.] Question 3

    item[A.] Answer 3

    bigskip

    item[Q.] Question 4

    item[A.] Answer 4

    questionVSpace

    item[Q.] Question 5

    item[A.] Answer 5

end{itemize}



section{Variant B}

Test

begin{itemize}

    qAndA {Text foo}{Text bar}

    qAndA {Text foo}{Text bar}

    qAndA {Text foo}{Text bar}

end{itemize}

end{document}

More simply, you could use a different itemize for each Q & A:

begin{itemize}

    item[Q.] Question 1

    item[A.] Answer 1

end[itemize}



begin{itemize}

    item[Q.] Question 2

    item[A.] Answer 2

end{itemize}

Here's an approach using a new environment called QA. I've tried to throw in enough to let you see what's possible beyond just what you asked and to allow you to see where additional tweaks might enhance what you're doing. I've exaggerated the effect of adding vertical space between an answer and a following question: tweak to something more suitable.

documentclass{article}



newcounter{aeQAcounter}

newcounter{aePAIRcounter}

defaeRememberLastPair{1}

newenvironment{QA}[1]

  {%% save the definition of `item` so I can access 

   %% its definition later when I *redefine* it.     

    letaeitemitem

   %% a crude key value'ish approach to remembering  

   %% previous value for question/answer pair.       

    defaeTestA{#1}%%

    defaeTestB{remember previous}%%

    ifxaeTestAaeTestB

      %% nothing to do here!!

    else

      defaeRememberLastPair{1}%%

    fi

    setcounter{aePAIRcounter}{aeRememberLastPair}%%

    begin{list}{%%

      sffamily

        ifoddtheaeQAcounter Question theaePAIRcounter%%

        else

          Answer theaePAIRcounter%%

          stepcounter{aePAIRcounter}%%

        fi

      :%%

      }

      {usecounter{aeQAcounter}}%%

    defitem{%%

      %% only add space if not the first question

      ifnumtheaePAIRcounter=aeRememberLastPair

        %% do nothing!!!!

      else

        %% only add space before question and after

        %% an answer (the even `item` in the list)

        ifoddtheaeQAcounter

        else

          vspace{4ex}%%

        fi

      fi

      aeitem}

    letquestionitem

    letansweritem

  }

  {xdefaeRememberLastPair{theaePAIRcounter}%%

   end{list}}



begin{document}



Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut

purus elit, vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae,

felis. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu

begin{QA}

question What do you say when you part from someone?

question bye

question What is a fruit that shouldn't be mixed with apples?

answer   An orange.

end{QA}

Nam dui ligula, fringilla a, euismod sodales, sollicitudin

vel, wisi. Morbi auctor lorem non justo. Nam lacus libero,

pretium at, lobortis vitae, ultricies et.

textbf{sffamily And, we continue with more questions:}

begin{QA}[remember previous]

question Donec aliquet, tortor sed accumsan bibendum, erat ligula aliquet

answer   Cras nec ante. Pellentesque a nulla.  Cum sociis natoque penatib

question Donec aliquet, tortor sed accumsan bibendum, erat ligula aliquet

answer   Cras nec ante. Pellentesque a nulla.  Cum sociis natoque penatib

end{QA}



textbf{sffamily And, Here is a new set of questions:}

begin{QA}

question Donec aliquet, tortor sed accumsan bibendum, erat ligula aliquet

answer   Cras nec ante. Pellentesque a nulla.  Cum sociis natoque penatib

question Donec aliquet, tortor sed accumsan bibendum, erat ligula aliquet

answer   Cras nec ante. Pellentesque a nulla.  Cum sociis natoque penatib

end{QA}





end{document}

Notice that I use two counters here. One counter is essentially the list's counter for each item. If it's odd, that means I'm asking a question. If it's even, that means I'm answering a question. The second counter is only advanced once the question/answer pair has been established.

Also, notice that question and answer are stupid, in the sense that they're really just stand-ins for item and don't do much else. Everything is handled through item and tracking counters. I try to let the environment itself handle the tracking of questions and answers. The only difficulty comes when adding space. From within the {list} environment's arguments, not much can be done.

One thing to note, you cannot insert vspace{...} from within the first argument to the {list} environment. It will do nothing there and just be ignored for the most part (or show up where you don't expect it).

The space between items is controlled by itemsep, so you can fix for each item, with the advantage that your Q & A lists will not influenced by the default itemsep as it would happen using some additional vertical space as vspace,bigskip. I will add some glue too, not a fixed length, that would help to avoid orphan items/lines.

This can be done easily as already proposed making a macro for each item type, and I think that semantically is better that a complex redefine of item type to hiddenly switch from "Q." to "A.". With the "keep it simple" principle in mind, I do not see the need of conditionals or counters (I will edit the answer if you clarify this point), so the macros could be some like this:

documentclass{article}



newcommandQ[1]{item[bfseries Q.]

itemsep2pt plus 2pt #1}

newcommandA[1]{item[bfseries A.]

itemsep1em plus .2em minus .1em #1}



newenvironment{q-a}{section*{Questions 

and answers}begin{itemize}}{end{itemize}}



begin{document}



begin{q-a}

    Q Question 1

    A Answer 1 

    Q Question 2

    A Answer 2 

    Q Question 3

    A Answer 3 

end{q-a}



end{document}