How to change horizontal spacing in arrays?

$$\begin{array}{lcr} & \text{A} & \\[-0.1cm] & | & \\[-0.1cm] \text{C} & \text{B} & \text{D} \\[-0.1cm] & | & \\[-0.1cm] & \text{E} & \\ \end{array}$$ How do I edit the spacing between $\text{C}$ and $\text{B}$ (as well as $\text{B}$ and $\text{D}$)? In $\LaTeX$, one can do it by following this, but it does not work for MathJax. Any ideas on how to edit the array horizontal spacing?

This method feels kinda "hacky," but you could use LaTeX math mode spacing commands like \,, \:, \;, \enspace, \quad or \qquad within the cells of the array. Right click on the diagram below and select Show Math As -> TeX Commands to see what I mean.

\begin{array}{lcr} & \text{A} & \\[-0.1cm] & | & \\[-0.1cm] \text{C}\quad & \text{B} & \quad\text{D} \\[-0.1cm] & | & \\[-0.1cm] & \text{E} & \\ \end{array}

But of course this would be a burden to do manually for larger arrays.

• What about in case you want to shorten the spacing? – Siddharth Venu Jan 24 '18 at 18:58
• @SiddharthVenu there's another spacing command \! that creates a negative thin space. But it's pretty thin. You'd have to add a bunch of those to get any dramatic effect. – Mike Pierce Jan 24 '18 at 18:59
• I guess I will have to use it even though it is clumsy. Thank you! – Siddharth Venu Jan 24 '18 at 19:02
• Another "clumsy" technique is to create alternating array entries with "phantom" characters with specified horizontal and/or vertical spacing. See How do I create an invisible character? These work for me in MathJax. – hardmath Jan 25 '18 at 15:38

An easier way to do this is to use \hspace as follows:

\begin{array}{lcr}
& \text{A} & \\[-0.1cm]
& | & \\[-0.1cm]
\text{C} \hspace{0.9cm}& \text{B} &\hspace{0.9cm} \text{D} \\[-0.1cm]
& | & \\[-0.1cm]
& \text{E} & \\
\end{array}
`

gives

\begin{array}{lcr} & \text{A} & \\[-0.1cm] & | & \\[-0.1cm] \text{C} \hspace{0.9cm}& \text{B} &\hspace{0.9cm} \text{D} \\[-0.1cm] & | & \\[-0.1cm] & \text{E} & \\ \end{array}