I want to draw a split with diffrent blocks inside each one there is the block index.
Since I am new to LaTeX, I tried to use
\fbox{$b_{0}$}\fbox{$b_{1}$}\fbox{$b_{2}$}%
\fbox{$..........................$}%
\fbox{$b_{S.t -1}$}\fbox{$b_{s.t}$}
However, this gives boxes of different sizes. Is there any other suggestion.
EDITED to use LaTeX101 construct \framebox{}, instead of \fbox{\makebox{}} (D'oh!).
Use a \framebox instead of an \fbox, since it allows a box width to be specified. In this example, I choose 1 inch size and center alignment within the box. That is changed for the last example to left alignment.
\documentclass{article}
\newcommand\fxbox[1]{\framebox[1in][c]{#1}}
\parskip 1em\parindent 0in
\begin{document}
ORIGINAL:\\
\fbox{$b_{0}$}\fbox{$b_{1}$}\fbox{$b_{2}$}\fbox{$........................$%
}\fbox{$b_{S.t -1}$}\fbox{$b_{s.t}$}
UNIFORM WIDTH (center alignment):\\
\fxbox{$b_{0}$}\fxbox{$b_{1}$}\fxbox{$b_{2}$}\fxbox{$........................$%
}\fxbox{$b_{S.t -1}$}\fxbox{$b_{s.t}$}
\renewcommand\fxbox[1]{\framebox[1in][l]{\strut#1}}
UNIFORM WIDTH \& HEIGHT (left alignment):\\
\fxbox{$b_{0}$}\fxbox{$b_{1}$}\fxbox{$b_{2}$}\fxbox{$........................$%
}\fxbox{$b_{S.t -1}$}\fxbox{$b_{s.t}$}
\end{document}
You'll also note in the middle image that the vertical height of the boxes are a different, because of the height/depth of the content. If you would like those the same, you could define \fxbox as in the third example
\newcommand\fxbox[1]{\framebox[1in][l]{\strut#1}}
The \strut will extend the vertical box to the full line-height extent.
\framebox is on p.98 of Lamport's text, it is somewhat embarrassing to not recall it in my sleep.
Commented
Aug 30, 2013 at 12:10
A TikZ solution:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[
every node/.style={
draw,minimum width=1in,
text height=1.75ex,
text depth=0.5ex,
},
node distance=-\pgflinewidth,
]
\node (b 0) {$b_0$};
\node (b 1) [right=of b 0] {$b_1$};
\node (b 2) [right=of b 1] {$b_2$};
\node (dots) [right=of b 2] {.\,.\,.\,.\,.\,.\,.\,.};
\node (b St-1) [right=of dots] {$b_{S.t -1}$};
\node (b St) [right=of b St-1] {$b_{S.t}$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
I used the every node style to let all nodes in the picture have the same width and hight, and draw the border. You can delete the lines with text depth and text height to let the nodes have their natural height. The node distance is set to the line width of the border, so between the nodes it looks like they share the line.
dots node, but the others might also differ). I'd suggest adding something like text height=1.5ex,text depth=.25ex to the node style to amend this. (This is kind of like adding a strut of height 1.5ex and depth 0.25ex to every text node.) [See further TikZ & PGF Manual for Version 2.1, $5.1 (pp 60-62)].
Two solutions.
(1) The width is set to the widest entry, but an optional argument is provided for modifying it by addition. A second optional argument (in parentheses) is the inner alignment, default center.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xparse}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\NewDocumentCommand{\rimatightboxes}{ O{0pt} D(){c} m }
{
\rima_tightboxes:nnn { #1 } { #2 } { #3 }
}
\seq_new:N \l_rima_input_seq
\seq_new:N \l_rima_boxes_seq
\dim_new:N \l_rima_width_dim
\box_new:N \l_rima_entry_box
\cs_new_protected:Npn \rima_tightboxes:nnn #1 #2 #3
{
\seq_set_split:Nnn \l_rima_input_seq { , } { #3 }
\dim_zero:N \l_rima_width_dim
\seq_map_inline:Nn \l_rima_input_seq
{
\str_if_eq:nnF { ##1 } { \dots }
{
\hbox_set:Nn \l_rima_entry_box { $##1$ }
\dim_set:Nn \l_rima_width_dim
{ \dim_max:nn { \l_rima_width_dim } { \box_wd:N \l_rima_entry_box } }
}
}
\dim_add:Nn \l_rima_width_dim { (#1 + \fboxsep) * 2}
\seq_set_map:NNn \l_rima_boxes_seq \l_rima_input_seq
{
\str_if_eq:nnTF { ##1 } { \dots }
{
\exp_not:n { \framebox[\l_rima_width_dim][#2] { \strut\dotfill } }
}
{
\exp_not:n { \framebox[\l_rima_width_dim][#2] { \strut$##1$ } }
}
}
\seq_use:Nn \l_rima_boxes_seq { \kern-\fboxrule }
}
\ExplSyntaxOff
\begin{document}
\rimatightboxes{b_{0},b_{1},b_{2},\dots,b_{st-1},b_{st}}
\bigskip
\rimatightboxes(l){b_{0},b_{1},b_{2},\dots,b_{st-1},b_{st}}
\bigskip
\rimatightboxes[3pt]{b_{0},b_{1},b_{2},\dots,b_{st-1},b_{st}}
\bigskip
\rimatightboxes[3pt](r){b_{0},b_{1},b_{2},\dots,b_{st-1},b_{st}}
\end{document}
(2) The width is set via an optional argument (default 0.5in). A second optional argument (in parentheses) is the inner alignment, default center.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xparse}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\NewDocumentCommand{\rimaboxes}{ O{0.5in} D(){c} m }
{
\rima_boxes:nnn { #1 } { #2 } { #3 }
}
\seq_new:N \l_rima_input_seq
\seq_new:N \l_rima_boxes_seq
\cs_new_protected:Npn \rima_boxes:nnn #1 #2 #3
{
\seq_set_split:Nnn \l_rima_input_seq { , } { #3 }
\seq_set_map:NNn \l_rima_boxes_seq \l_rima_input_seq
{
\str_if_eq:nnTF { ##1 } { \dots }
{
\exp_not:n { \framebox[#1][#2] { \strut\dotfill } }
}
{
\exp_not:n { \framebox[#1][#2] { \strut$##1$ } }
}
}
\seq_use:Nn \l_rima_boxes_seq { \kern-\fboxrule }
}
\ExplSyntaxOff
\begin{document}
\rimaboxes{b_{0},b_{1},b_{2},\dots,b_{st-1},b_{st}}
\bigskip
\rimaboxes(l){b_{0},b_{1},b_{2},\dots,b_{st-1},b_{st}}
\bigskip
\rimaboxes[.3in]{b_{0},b_{1},b_{2},\dots,b_{st-1},b_{st}}
\bigskip
\rimaboxes[.3in](r){b_{0},b_{1},b_{2},\dots,b_{st-1},b_{st}}
\end{document}
As you see, the last two examples don't really fit.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\setlength\extrarowheight{2pt}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{|*6{>{\centering$}X<{$}|}}
\hline
b_0&b_1&b_2&\cdots&b_{s.t-1}&b_{s.t}\tabularnewline
\hline
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}
