Tabularx and space between row

Question

I create a table using the tabularx environement for automatic line breaking. I also enlarged the space between some rows (not all) with the command \\[<m>pt] where <m> is a number.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\begin{document}
    \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{lX}
    row1 & Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
        \\[4pt]
    row2 & Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
        \\
    row3 & Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
    \end{tabularx} 
\end{document}

Although the instruction \\[4pt] works fine with tabular, it doesn't work with tabularx. How to handle parameterized space for some rows of a tabularx environment ?

Answer 1

Let me convert my comment to an answer:

Problem of adding space after row in tabularx table is explained in David Carlisle answer. From it as solution for your problem is terminate table row with

 ... \\ \noalign{\vspace{4pt}}

or use \addlinespace from the package booktabs as I suggested in the comment. Use of both ways are presented in the following MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs, tabularx}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{lX}
    row1 & Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
        \\ \noalign{\vspace{4pt}}
    row2 & Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
        \\
    \addlinespace[4pt]
    row3 & Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
    \end{tabularx}
\end{document}

As you can see, between all rows is vertical space of 4pt. The first is determined as suggested in the @David answer (see link), the second as I suggest in my comment.

Note: default vertical space which is added by command \addlinespace is .5em. If you like to have different vertical distance, add it as option to command, for example as is done in MWE above

Answer 2

Unnecessary use of tabularx (and the dummy text):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum} 
\settowidth{\labelwidth}{row X}
\setlength{\labelsep}{2\tabcolsep}
\setlength{\leftmargini}{\dimexpr\labelwidth+\labelsep\relax}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1][1-7]
\begin{itemize}
% \setlength{\itemsep}{11ex} % set as needed
\item[row 1] \lipsum[1][1-4]
\item[row 2] \lipsum[2][1-4]
\item[row 3] \lipsum[3][1-4]
\end{itemize}
\lipsum[5]
\end{document}

Note: using tabularx, one dirtier trick, but easier to type than \\\noalign{\vspace{4pt}} is \\\\[-8pt] instead of \\[4pt] (however, not a good idea using \rowcolors, obviously).