Add list of figures / tables only when content

Question

How can I add the list of figures, tables or listings to the frontmatter, ONLY when there is content in each respectively?

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered May 12 '13 at 09:27

16

You could use the/my totalcount package for that purpose:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{listings}
\usepackage[figure,table,lstlisting]{totalcount}

\begin{document}
\iftotalfigures\listoffigures\fi
\iftotaltables\listoftables\fi
\iftotallstlistings\lstlistoflistings\fi

\begin{figure}
\caption{A figure}
\end{figure}

%\begin{table}
%\caption{A table}
%\end{table}

\begin{lstlisting}[caption={Useless code},label=useless,captionpos=t]
  for i:=maxint to 0 do
  begin
      { do nothing }
  end;
\end{lstlisting}

\end{document}

Please note that older versions of the totalcount package does not support the lstlisting counter, one need at least v1.0-92 for that.

Version v1.0-92 of the totalcount package can be found here: https://sourceforge.net/p/latex-caption/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/tex/ (will upload it to CTAN today)

answered May 12 '13 at 09:27

Excellent! Havn't tested yet but looks like a clean solution. – Nicholas Hamilton May 12 '13 at 09:32
Will it work with newly defined lstlisting environments? – Nicholas Hamilton May 12 '13 at 09:33
@ADP How do you actually define new listing environments? At least the one defined with \lstnewenvironment do use the same counter (lstlistings), so there should be no problem. – May 12 '13 at 09:45
@ADP ...I just have found http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/113679/2574 However, this solution (from Werner) does use own lists but not own counters for the newly defined environments, so in this case you need to use the solution offered by egreg since it checks for the content of the lists while the totalcount package is dependent on (separate) counters. – May 12 '13 at 09:53

egreg · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-11T20:48:41.823

8

This is for the article class; adapt the redefinition of \listoftables in a similar way by copying the definition in the class you're using.

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
% We don't want to kill the table of contents
\renewcommand\tableofcontents{%
    \section*{\contentsname
        \@mkboth{%
           \MakeUppercase\contentsname}{\MakeUppercase\contentsname}}%
    \global\@printlisttrue
    \@starttoc{toc}%
    }

% redefine \listoftables to check for contents
\renewcommand\listoftables{%
  \check@list{lot}
  \if@printlist
    \section*{\listtablename}%
      \@mkboth{%
          \MakeUppercase\listtablename}%
         {\MakeUppercase\listtablename}%
  \fi
  \@starttoc{lot}%
}
\def\@starttoc#1{%
  \begingroup
    \makeatletter
    \if@printlist
      \@input{\jobname.#1}%
    \fi
    \if@filesw
      \expandafter\newwrite\csname tf@#1\endcsname
      \immediate\openout \csname tf@#1\endcsname \jobname.#1\relax
    \fi
    \@nobreakfalse
  \endgroup}
\newif\if@printlist

% We typeset the file in a box; if the box is empty, we don't input the file for real
\def\check@list#1{%
  \global\@printlistfalse
  \setbox\z@=\vbox{\makeatletter\@input{\jobname.#1}}%
  \ifdim\ht\z@>\z@\global\@printlisttrue\fi}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\listoftables

%%% uncomment the table for seeing the effect
%\begin{table}[htp]x\caption{y}\end{table}

abc

\end{document}

edited May 11 '13 at 20:48

answered May 11 '13 at 19:53

egreg

1,121,712

This is excellent, however, seems to be a clash when babel is being used. Do you get an error when \usepackage[english]{babel} or \usepackage[australian]{babel} is put in the preamble? – Nicholas Hamilton May 11 '13 at 20:03
@ADP Yes, you're right. Fixed. – egreg May 11 '13 at 20:07
Great. Cheers.. – Nicholas Hamilton May 11 '13 at 20:11
I just realized it also killed the table of contents. – Nicholas Hamilton May 11 '13 at 20:42
@ADP Yes; you have to redefine also \tableofcontents accordingly. I'll add it. – egreg May 11 '13 at 20:45
@egreg Why not offering something like \ifchecklist{<counter>}{<code>} so one could use \ifchecklist{figure}{\listoffigures}. (The file extension could be found in \ext@<counter>, e.g. \ext@figure is defined as lof.) As opposite to your solution this approach would not be dependent on the document class used anymore since no patching of \listoffigures etc. is needed here. – May 12 '13 at 10:01
@AxelSommerfeldt The counter might reset at new sections. However your idea is good. – egreg May 12 '13 at 10:14
@egreg I do not see how counters, reset at new sections, do affect my idea about your solution, since (still) no counters are used at all? I'm confused... – May 12 '13 at 10:48
@egreg \newcommand\check@list[2]{\setbox\z@=\vbox{\makeatletter\@input{\jobname.#1}}\ifdim\ht\z@>\z@\relax#2\else\if@filesw\expandafter\newwrite\csname tf@#1\endcsname\immediate\openout \csname tf@#1\endcsname \jobname.#1\relax\fi\fi}\newcommand\ifchecklist[1]{\check@list{\@nameuse{ext@#1}}} - hopefully this makes it more clear what I had in mind. – May 12 '13 at 11:39

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 11 '13 at 20:05

1

A sketch of a simple solution, with additional restrictions: \caption should be used, and listof... is at the end of a document.

\documentclass{article}


\def\ADPlistoftables{\ifnum\value{table}>0 \listoftables \else  \fi}
\def\ADPlistoffigures{\ifnum\value{figure}>0 \listoffigures \else  \fi}

\begin{document}

%\ADPlistoftables
%\ADPlistoffigures


\begin{figure}[!ht]
     \centering
 \caption{ }   
\end{figure}

\begin{table}[!ht]
 \caption{ }   
\end{table}

\section{First}

\begin{figure}[!ht]
     \centering
 \caption{ }   
\end{figure}

\begin{table}[!ht]
 \caption{ }   
\end{table}

\ADPlistoftables
\ADPlistoffigures


\end{document}

enter image description here

answered May 11 '13 at 20:05

Przemysław Scherwentke

37,268

The problem with this approach is that the counters can get reset, say if the number format is chapter or section based. – Nicholas Hamilton May 11 '13 at 20:09
@ADP You are right. It is a simplification, because I cannot imagine a real usage, when percent sign is easy to use. – Przemysław Scherwentke May 11 '13 at 20:19
Was waiting for a comment like that. But if you have a look at my recent post about different listings environments, and having a list of C code, list of R code and list of Pseudo code, now extend it to many other code variants, it is a safety net. – Nicholas Hamilton May 11 '13 at 20:27
@ADP I hope that informing about it is not against the rules. I upvoted your question when it had only downvote, because i saw it's potential. However, a background of your question might be helpful in finding a good answer. And now I am going to study your other posts. :-) – Przemysław Scherwentke May 11 '13 at 20:49

Add list of figures / tables only when content

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