# Alignment base on two reference nodes

I am new to tikz. If I have two nodes [A] and [B] as:

[A]

[B]


How do I align [C] so that it is vertically below [A] and horizontally left of [B] such that:

[A]

[C]    [B]


without resorting to absolute positioning?

-

\documentclass[11pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node (a) at (0,0){[A]};
\node (b) at (5,-4){[B]};
\node (c) at (a|-b){[C]};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

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Thanks that is exactly what I wanted. –  Mobius Pizza Dec 12 '11 at 21:55

You can use relative positioning (§ 3.8; TIKZ & PGF Manual, v. 2.10).

 \documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}[auto]
\node [draw] (a) {A};
\node [draw, below of=a] (c) {C};
\node [draw, right of=c] (b) {B};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}
\end{document}


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No, if you need to place C after A and B. And in the question you need to place C after A and B. Another problem with this method appears with scale=.... –  Alain Matthes Dec 12 '11 at 21:50
Not sure why you would need to place C after A and B, and not sure that the question implies that need. (The question does state the preference to avoid absolute positioning, and hence I still prefer my answer :P.) –  badroit Dec 12 '11 at 21:58
The question begins with  If I have two nodes [A] and [B] Your method is correct in multiple cases like graphs in the tutorials of the pgfmanual, personally I tried to avoid it in the geometric pictures because it' s difficult to scale the result. –  Alain Matthes Dec 12 '11 at 22:37
You could do below right=of... with the positioning library if you set node distance=x<dimen> and y<dimen> to the surrounding scope/tikzpicture. –  morbusg Dec 13 '11 at 16:08