# Adding a 'bridge' or link between two rows in a table

I'm making a report and I've been asked to do something which I have no idea is even possible or not. I have this table:

\begin{table}
\begin{center}
\caption{Cryostat-In Pin Outs and Resistances}
\label{cryoin}
\begin{tabular}{ccc}
\hline
\aline
~ Pin & Device & Resistance \\
\hline
\hline
A & Thermometer & NA\\
B & Thermometer & NA\\
C & Detector & 24.3$\Omega$\\
D & Detector & 25.3$\Omega$\\
E & Detector & 24.4$\Omega$\\
F & Detector & 25.3$\Omega$\\
G & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
H & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
J & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
K & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{table}


However, I am attempting to show which pins are connected together by a pair of wires, via putting a "[" symbol or something similar between two rows (e.g. between C and D) to the left of the table/letters themselves, such that the ends of the symbol are pointing to both the letters (and the symbol isn't simply suspended between them).

In case my description is unclear, I basically wanted to do this (sorry for the blur):

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Welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look on our our starter page to familiarize yourself further with our format. Could you check if Add a curved arrow and a bracket to a table might help you? – Claudio Fiandrino Jul 4 '13 at 14:02
Small comment on table design: have a look at the booktabs package, with the new rule commands it offers you could get that table to look a lot better. Since booktabs also allows you to draw rules that only span some of the columns, you could add an extra empty column to the start of your table and put the braces in there - either with \rowspan cells or with zero-sized boxes as explained below. – Bristol Jul 4 '13 at 14:34
Thanks to both of you, I'll have a look at these things now. :) – samanthapants Jul 4 '13 at 14:56
Please delete your duplicate question on Stack Overflow. – Martin Schröder Jul 6 '13 at 23:22

You can just use a [ but hide its width and depth.

PS Please always post complete documents (then you'd have noticed the undefined command in the question)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{color}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
\centering
\caption{Cryostat-In Pin Outs and Resistances}
\label{cryoin}
\begin{tabular}{ccc}
\hline
\hline
~ Pin & Device & Resistance \\
\hline
\hline
A & Thermometer & NA\\
B & Thermometer & NA\\
\raisebox{-.7em}[0pt][0pt]{\llap{\textcolor{red}{\Large[}}}%
C & Detector & 24.3$\Omega$\\
D & Detector & 25.3$\Omega$\\
\raisebox{-.7em}[0pt][0pt]{\llap{\textcolor{red}{\Large[}}}%
E & Detector & 24.4$\Omega$\\
F & Detector & 25.3$\Omega$\\
G & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
H & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
J & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
K & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
\hline
\end{tabular}

\end{table}

\end{document}

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+1 for using no TikZ – Marco Daniel Jul 4 '13 at 14:33
+1, but I prefer mine ;) – Claudio Fiandrino Jul 4 '13 at 14:39
Oh wow, thanks to you as well. This does precisely what I need it to do, but I'll also have a look at/attempt to learn the other method. Cheers! :) – samanthapants Jul 4 '13 at 14:56
@MarcoDaniel What's TikZ? – David Carlisle Jul 4 '13 at 14:57
texample.net/tikz/examples - the most complex and powerful drawing tool in the TeXer's toolbox. But complete overkill for the situation described here. – Bristol Jul 4 '13 at 15:31

Actually I'll post a solution using booktabs as I said in my comment above.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
\centering
\caption{Cryostat-In Pin Outs and Resistances}
\label{cryoin}
\begin{tabular}{r@{\hspace{0.5ex}}lcc}
\toprule
& Pin & Device & Resistance \\
\midrule
& A & Thermometer & NA\\
& B & Thermometer & NA\\
\multirow{2}{*}{\big [} & C & Detector & 24.3$\Omega$\\
& D & Detector & 25.3$\Omega$\\
\multirow{2}{*}{\big [} & E & Detector & 24.4$\Omega$\\
& F & Detector & 25.3$\Omega$\\
& G & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
& H & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
& J & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
& K & Resistor & 25.6$\Omega$\\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}

\end{table}

\end{document}


The @{\hspace{0.5ex}} overrides the default space between the new first column and the pins: if you really want the pins column centered, you can make this space zero or even negative to get the braces closer to the pin names. The extra space before and after the headings (and the lack of double rules) improves the table IMHO though you can also use the multirow part of my solution without making that change.

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