# More and Less Space in Cases [duplicate]

Why do I have this space (red arrow)? Why I do not have more space (orange arrow)?

I use cases and doublespacing.

Even I use \everydisplay\expandafter{\the\everydisplay\setstretch{1}}, because of doublespacing, as suggested in Matrix within equation, the problem does not solve.

I have tried array, dcases, drcases, but it does not work.

Thank you!

## marked as duplicate by Mico, Troy, Mensch, Schweinebacke, diabonasOct 7 '17 at 17:27

• @Mico I have not issued any command \renewcommand\baselinestretch{2}. I use the harvard-thesis.cls and I use doublespacing. – Vassilis Chasiotis Oct 7 '17 at 15:26
• Ah, the piece of information related to the use of the setspace package and the \doublespacing directive is absolutely crucial. – Mico Oct 7 '17 at 15:31
• You should study the query Matrix within equation and, in particular, the answer provided by Herbert, viz., issuing the instruction \everydisplay\expandafter{\the\everydisplay\setstretch{1}} in the preamble. – Mico Oct 7 '17 at 15:46

You can have some symmetry using \bigstrut but you get a better result with some caution loading empheq and using the eponymous environment:

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{empheq, bigstrut}

\begin{document}
\doublespacing
With \texttt{ dcases: }
$\begin{cases} x + y = q^2 \\ \biggl[\dfrac{N}{q^2}\biggr]_{\bigstrut[b]} x + \biggl(\biggl[\dfrac{N}{q^2}\biggr] + 1\biggr)y = N \end{cases}$%

With \verb|\empheqlbrace:|
\begin{empheq}[left=\empheqlbrace]{align*}
& x + y = q^2\\
& \biggl[\dfrac{N}{q^2}\biggr]x + \biggl(\biggl[\dfrac{N}{q^2}\biggr]_{\bigstrut[b]} + 1\biggr)y = N
\end{empheq}

\end{document}


• Note that the OP has revealed a crucial piece of information in the meantime, viz., that he/she uses the setspace package and a \doublespacing directive. Do you want to adjust your answer accordingly? – Mico Oct 7 '17 at 15:33
• @Bernand It works perfect with \empheqlbrace. But I need to use \\[-2.6ex] instead of \\[-2ex] to be symmetric. Maybe because of \doublespacing as @Mico said. – Vassilis Chasiotis Oct 7 '17 at 15:43
• Probably. The exact value has to be found by trial and error. Normally, there would be no correction to do, but here there's a discrepancy between the two rows. – Bernard Oct 7 '17 at 15:45
• @VassilisChasiotis: I've found a better solution, using bigstrut. Please see my updated answer. – Bernard Oct 7 '17 at 16:07
• @Bernard It is much better! I can also use align,align* with numbering easier. Thank you! – Vassilis Chasiotis Oct 7 '17 at 16:13