Bdtyktl

I'd like to create a dashed line in TikZ with an arrow head at the end of each dash. The following code accomplishes this using a foreach loop but looking for a way to do this with a style key instead. Something similar to

draw [densely dashed, ->] (0,0) -- ++(100pt,0);

but places arrowheads on all dashes not just the end.

MWE:

documentclass[12pt]{article}

usepackage{tikz}

begin{document}

begin{tikzpicture}

    draw [densely dashed] (0,0) -- ++(100pt,0);

    foreach i in {0,5,10,...,100}{%

        draw [->] (i*1pt,-0.25) -- ++(3pt,0);

    }

end{tikzpicture}

end{document}

I guess for this one of the simplest possibilities will be to employ decorations.markings.

documentclass[12pt]{article}

usepackage{tikz}

usetikzlibrary{decorations.markings}

begin{document}

begin{tikzpicture}

    draw [dash pattern=on 3pt off 2pt,postaction={decorate,

    decoration={markings,

    mark=between positions 3pt and 1 step 5pt with {arrow{>};}}}] (0,0) -- ++(100pt,0);

end{tikzpicture}

end{document}

Depending on the real application, one could make this a style, or, what might be better for curved paths, just declare a new (meta) decoration. Luckily, the pgfmanual has on p. 1007 a meta decoration that one only has to slightly modify to arrive at

documentclass[tikz,border=3.14mm]{standalone}

usetikzlibrary{decorations,arrows.meta}

pgfdeclaremetadecoration{many arrows}{initial}{ 

state{initial}[width=0pt, next state=arrow] {

    pgfmathdivide{100}{pgfmetadecoratedpathlength}

    letfactorpgfmathresult

    %pgfsetlinewidth{1pt}

    pgfset{/pgf/decoration/segment length=4pt}

  }

  state{arrow}[

switch if less than=pgfmetadecorationsegmentlength to final, width=pgfmetadecorationsegmentlength/3,

next state=end arrow]

  {

    decoration{curveto}

    beforedecoration

    {

      pgfpathmoveto{pgfpointmetadecoratedpathfirst}

} }

state{end arrow}[width=pgfmetadecorationsegmentlength/3, next state=move] {

    decoration{curveto}

    beforedecoration{pgfpathmoveto{pgfpointmetadecoratedpathfirst}}

    afterdecoration

    {

      pgfsetarrowsend{Latex[length=1pt,width=1pt]}

      pgfusepath{stroke}

    }

}

state{move}[width=pgfmetadecorationsegmentlength/2, next state=arrow]{} state{final}{}

}

begin{document}

begin{tikzpicture}

draw[ultra thin,decorate,decoration={many arrows,meta-segment length=3pt}] (0,0) .. controls (0,2) and (3,2) .. (3,0)

        .. controls (3,-2)  and (0,-2)  .. (0,-4)

        .. controls (0,-6)  and (3,-6)  .. (3,-8)

        .. controls (3,-10) and (0,-10) .. (0,-8);

end{tikzpicture}       

end{document}      

Here I zoom into the outcome to show that the arrows are tiny. (Recall that the diameter is 3cm.)