Nonstandard nesting of left and right vertical braces

Question

In this question I asked about non-standard nesting of over- and underbraces. Now I have occasion to do the same thing with \left{ and \right} in an array, thus

\begin{array}{l}

A  \\  B  \\  C  \\  D  \\  E

\end{array}

A right brace to the right of this array would encompass A, B, and C, and a left brace to its left would encompass C, D, and E, so the braces overlap.

How can that be done?

Answer 1

Here I've set the left brace in a left column, the "data" in the middle column and the right brace in the right column. \mathstruts are used in place of content, but one could consider using \vphantom if the content is not regularly spaced:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\[
  \setlength{\arraycolsep}{0pt}
  \begin{array}{ *{3}{c} }
    \begin{array}{ c }
      \mathstrut \\ \mathstrut \\
      \left\{\begin{array}{ c } \mathstrut \\ \mathstrut \\ \mathstrut \end{array}\right.
    \end{array} &
    \begin{array}{ c}
      One \\ Two \\ Three \\ Four \\ Five
    \end{array}
    \begin{array}{ c }
      \left.\begin{array}{c}
        \mathstrut \\ \mathstrut \\ \mathstrut
      \end{array}\right\} \\
      \mathstrut \\ \mathstrut
    \end{array}
  \end{array}
\]

\end{document}

Answer 2

A solution with pstricks and another with the dcases and drcases from mathtools:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathtools} %
\usepackage{pstricks-add, auto-pst-pdf}%
\psset{linejoin=1, braceWidth=1pt, braceWidthInner=2pt, braceWidthOuter=2.5pt}
 \begin{document}

\[ \begin{pspicture} \begin{matrix}
    A \pnode[1pt, 1.8ex]{A}\\ %
    B\\ %
   \pnode[-1pt, 1.8ex]{C1} C \pnode[1pt, -0.2ex]{C}\\%
    D\\ %
   \pnode[-1pt, -0.3ex]{E} E \\ %
  \end{matrix}
    \psbrace(C)(A){}
    \psbrace(C1)(E){}
    \end{pspicture}
\]
    \vspace{-4ex}
\begin{align*}
  & \begin{drcases}
    A\\ %
    B\\ %
    C\\%
  \end{drcases}\\[-1.06\baselineskip]
  & \hspace{-0.76em}\begin{dcases}
    \phantom{C}\\%
    D \\%
    E \\%
    \end{dcases}
\end{align*}

\end{document}