How to add arrows to a legend or a table?

Question

I want to create a legend where I give the meaning of the arrows. As follows. However 

legend
   |=|= blah|
   | --> | blah1|
   | -[dashed]-> |blah2|
   | -[dotted]-> | blah3 |
endlegend

Somehow I did not find a way to upload an image, but the arrows do not show. Just the same as the text.

Answer 1

Hello C.

Adapted from: https://forum.plantuml.net/9142/how-to-explain-used-line-types-associations-in-a-diagram

and from this answer : https://forum.plantuml.net/9142/how-to-explain-used-line-types-associations-in-a-diagram?show=9149#c9149

→ "You can create an image and after use it on all your diagrams [or legend table]"
[With this constraint: the [image] output must be a PNG]

Here is a possible example:

[Code on PlantUML online server]

If that can help,
Regards,
Th.

Comments

Thank you very much!, This might work. And I ask for something along these lines. However, looks like the feature of having a diagram inside a table is not enabled yet. If so, these table was a lot easier to do.

Answer 2

If you only need simple arrows, then Unicode should work for you (subject to font glyph coverage):

@startuml
legend left
  Legend
  |<color:blue><size:18><&arrow-right></size></color> | some text |
  |<color:green><size:18><&arrow-right></size></color>| other text |
  |<color:red><size:18><U+2B38></size></color>|leftwards dotted arrow|
  |<color:purple><size:18><U+2911></size></color>|rightwards dotted arrow|
  |<color:orange><size:18><U+21E0></size></color>|leftwards dashed arrow|
  |<color:black><size:18><U+21E2></size></color>|rightwards dashed arrow|
end legend
@enduml

[source online]

A more flexible alternative is to (ab)use a sub-diagram:

legend left
{{
  scale 0.75

  card Relations {
    together  {
      label "some label"
      (a) -[#blue;#green,dashed,thickness=4]right-> (b) : deduced
      (b) -[#purple]left-> (a) : inferred
    }
    together {
      label "more text"
      (c) -[#red,dashed,thickness=1]right-> (d)  : relation
    }
    together {
      label "description"
      (e) -[#green,thickness=2]right-> (f)  : derived
    }
    a -[hidden]d-> c
    c -[hidden]d-> e
}}
Legend
end legend

[source online]

Answer 3

Here's an idea using a map table, which does support sub-diagrams:

(click diagram for online server)

Comments

Certainly a lot neater and more compact than my card approach (and no layout hacks required :)