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I'm trying to format a homework document, in which I want to write the questions and answers in a list. The question is followed by an answer, after which I want a slightly bigger gap before the next question and answer

beginitemize
 item[Q.] Question 1
 item[A.] Answer 1
 %space here
 item[Q.] Question 2
 item[A.] Answer 2
enditemize

Currently, I'm adding a space by using an empty list item (item). The output is shown below. Unfortunately, this creates a much larger space than I want. Is there a cleaner way to do this?

Very basic solution which doesn't require manual spacing:

Define two macros, question and answer, which do item[Q.] and item[A.], respectively. The question macro also inserts a vertical space of 0.25 cm if it's not in the first question, so the space between the list and the paragraph is right.

documentclassarticle

usepackagelipsum% Just for dummy text

makeatletter
newififfirstquestion
 firstquestiontrue
defquestion%
 iffirstquestion
 firstquestionfalse
 else
 vspace0.25cm%
 fi
 item[Q.]
defanswer%
 item[A.]
makeatother

begindocument
pagenumberinggobble

lipsum[1]

beginitemize
 question Question 1
 answer Answer 1
 question Question 2
 answer Answer 2
 question Question 2
 answer Answer 2
 question Question 2
 answer Answer 2
enditemize

lipsum[1]

enddocument

and, following A. Ellet's suggestion, if you will always label each item with "Question /Answer ", you can use a counter:

documentclassarticle

usepackagelipsum% Just for dummy text

makeatletter
newcounterQuestionCounter
newififfirstquestion
 firstquestiontrue
defquestion%
 iffirstquestion
 setcounterQuestionCounter1% Remove this to have the same numbering across different itemize's
 firstquestionfalse
 else
 vspace0.25cm%
 fi
 item[Q.] Question theQuestionCounter:space
defanswer%
 item[A.] Answer theQuestionCounter:space
 stepcounterQuestionCounter
makeatother

begindocument
pagenumberinggobble

lipsum[1]

beginitemize
 question What's your name?
 answer Foo
 question Where do you live?
 answer Bar
 question How old are you?
 answer -1
enditemize

lipsum[1]

enddocument

You have several options.

• The simplest is: Define your own command, say questionVSpace, to use a space between elements within a list. Observe that the definition of vertical space command may depend on the class you use.


• There are more elaborate ways to do it. I recommend using a command for doing so. This command should handle the vertical space automatically and should handle layout issues globally, e.g. if you want to change "Q." to "Question". A crude but more useful way is my second variant. This also allows to enumerate the question, see my code below.

These variants are implemented in the following MWE.

documentclassarticle 

%you can manually choose a space here if you do not like the predefined ones
%In case you want to use one of the predfined ones, say smallskip, you should still use questionVSpace and replace vspace9ex with smallskip
newcommandquestionVSpacevspace9ex


newcounterquestionCounter
newcommandqAndA[2]
%The following code automatically adds the space unless it is the first question. 
ifnumvaluequestionCounter>0
bigskip%you can choose a different space here.
fi
stepcounterquestionCounter
% You could also change "Q." to "Q. thequestionCounter"
item[Q.] #1 
item[A.] #2


begindocument
sectionVariant A
Test
beginitemize
 item[Q.] Question 1
 item[A.] Answer 1
 smallskip
 item[Q.] Question 2
 item[A.] Answer 2
 medskip
 item[Q.] Question 3
 item[A.] Answer 3
 bigskip
 item[Q.] Question 4
 item[A.] Answer 4
 questionVSpace
 item[Q.] Question 5
 item[A.] Answer 5
enditemize

sectionVariant B
Test
beginitemize
 qAndA Text fooText bar
 qAndA Text fooText bar
 qAndA Text fooText bar
enditemize
enddocument

More simply, you could use a different itemize for each Q & A:

beginitemize
 item[Q.] Question 1
 item[A.] Answer 1
end[itemize}

beginitemize
 item[Q.] Question 2
 item[A.] Answer 2
enditemize

Here's an approach using a new environment called QA. I've tried to throw in enough to let you see what's possible beyond just what you asked and to allow you to see where additional tweaks might enhance what you're doing. I've exaggerated the effect of adding vertical space between an answer and a following question: tweak to something more suitable.

documentclassarticle

newcounteraeQAcounter
newcounteraePAIRcounter
defaeRememberLastPair1
newenvironmentQA[1]
 %% save the definition of `item` so I can access 
 %% its definition later when I *redefine* it. 
 letaeitemitem
 %% a crude key value'ish approach to remembering 
 %% previous value for question/answer pair. 
 defaeTestA#1%%
 defaeTestBremember previous%%
 ifxaeTestAaeTestB
 %% nothing to do here!!
 else
 defaeRememberLastPair1%%
 fi
 setcounteraePAIRcounteraeRememberLastPair%%
 beginlist%%
 sffamily
 ifoddtheaeQAcounter Question theaePAIRcounter%%
 else
 Answer theaePAIRcounter%%
 stepcounteraePAIRcounter%%
 fi
 :%%
 
 usecounteraeQAcounter%%
 defitem%%
 %% only add space if not the first question
 ifnumtheaePAIRcounter=aeRememberLastPair
 %% do nothing!!!!
 else
 %% only add space before question and after
 %% an answer (the even `item` in the list)
 ifoddtheaeQAcounter
 else
 vspace4ex%%
 fi
 fi
 aeitem
 letquestionitem
 letansweritem
 
 xdefaeRememberLastPairtheaePAIRcounter%%
 endlist

begindocument

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut
purus elit, vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae,
felis. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu
beginQA
question What do you say when you part from someone?
question bye
question What is a fruit that shouldn't be mixed with apples?
answer An orange.
endQA
Nam dui ligula, fringilla a, euismod sodales, sollicitudin
vel, wisi. Morbi auctor lorem non justo. Nam lacus libero,
pretium at, lobortis vitae, ultricies et.
textbfsffamily And, we continue with more questions:
beginQA[remember previous]
question Donec aliquet, tortor sed accumsan bibendum, erat ligula aliquet
answer Cras nec ante. Pellentesque a nulla. Cum sociis natoque penatib
question Donec aliquet, tortor sed accumsan bibendum, erat ligula aliquet
answer Cras nec ante. Pellentesque a nulla. Cum sociis natoque penatib
endQA

textbfsffamily And, Here is a new set of questions:
beginQA
question Donec aliquet, tortor sed accumsan bibendum, erat ligula aliquet
answer Cras nec ante. Pellentesque a nulla. Cum sociis natoque penatib
question Donec aliquet, tortor sed accumsan bibendum, erat ligula aliquet
answer Cras nec ante. Pellentesque a nulla. Cum sociis natoque penatib
endQA


enddocument

Notice that I use two counters here. One counter is essentially the list's counter for each item. If it's odd, that means I'm asking a question. If it's even, that means I'm answering a question. The second counter is only advanced once the question/answer pair has been established.

Also, notice that question and answer are stupid, in the sense that they're really just stand-ins for item and don't do much else. Everything is handled through item and tracking counters. I try to let the environment itself handle the tracking of questions and answers. The only difficulty comes when adding space. From within the list environment's arguments, not much can be done.

One thing to note, you cannot insert vspace... from within the first argument to the list environment. It will do nothing there and just be ignored for the most part (or show up where you don't expect it).

The space between items is controlled by itemsep, so you can fix for each item, with the advantage that your Q & A lists will not influenced by the default itemsep as it would happen using some additional vertical space as vspace,bigskip. I will add some glue too, not a fixed length, that would help to avoid orphan items/lines.

This can be done easily as already proposed making a macro for each item type, and I think that semantically is better that a complex redefine of item type to hiddenly switch from "Q." to "A.". With the "keep it simple" principle in mind, I do not see the need of conditionals or counters (I will edit the answer if you clarify this point), so the macros could be some like this:

documentclassarticle

newcommandQ[1]item[bfseries Q.]
itemsep2pt plus 2pt #1
newcommandA[1]item[bfseries A.]
itemsep1em plus .2em minus .1em #1

newenvironmentq-asection*Questions 
and answersbeginitemizeenditemize

begindocument

beginq-a
 Q Question 1
 A Answer 1 
 Q Question 2
 A Answer 2 
 Q Question 3
 A Answer 3 
endq-a

enddocument