How to obtain verbatim text in a footnote?

Question

I want to employ a \verb command in a footnote. But, when I run pdflatex on

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

I want this.\footnote{\verb|But, it does not work!|}

\end{document}

I get this:

! LaTeX Error: \verb illegal in command argument.

How can I do what I am after? (I know that I could just use \footnote{\texttt{But, I lose the semantic mark-up.}})

Answer 1

The package fancyvrb supports this. Just put \VerbatimFootnotes anywhere after the preamble, and then:

We can put verbatim\footnote{\verb+_Yes!_+} text in footnotes.

Edit: As pointed out in the comment and here, this may conflict with some footnote-specific packages, e.g. footmisc when used with the para option, but there are other alternatives. Quoting two from there:

• The memoir class defines its \footnote command so that it will accept verbatim in its arguments, without any supporting package.

• With fancyvrb, you can \SaveVerb something and \UseVerb it in a footnote.

There exist also further packages like examplep.

Answer 2

The bigfoot package allows verbatim material in footnotes:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{bigfoot}
% only for this example:
\textheight=.5in
\begin{document}

I want this.\footnote{\verb|But, it does not work!&%$|}

\end{document}

Answer 3

! LaTeX Error: \verb illegal in command argument.? Yes. sir!

Well, then let’s use it in an environment:

The environment lrbox{<savebox>} works similar to \sbox{<savebox>}{<stuff to save>} but instead of saving an argument into a savebox it’s the environment’s body that gets saved into a savebox. That savebox is then used inside the \footnote command.

Code

\documentclass{article}
\newsavebox\myVerb
\newenvironment{verbbox}{\lrbox\myVerb}{\endlrbox}
\newcommand*{\verbBox}{\usebox\myVerb}
\begin{document}
I want this.%
\begin{lrbox}\myVerb%
    \verb|You got this! % \ _ { }|%
\end{lrbox}%
\footnote{\usebox\myVerb}%

I defined a custom environment and a custom macro for you.%
\begin{verbbox}\scriptsize\verb|\begin{verbox} \verb!\begin{verbox} Inception?\end{verbox}! \end{verbbox}|\end{verbbox}%
\footnote{Wow?! \verbBox}%
\end{document}

Output

Answer 4

In this approach, the verbatim material is placed in a box prior to entering the footnote, and the box is recalled within the footnote.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{verbatimbox}
\textheight=1in
\begin{document}
I am ready for a footnote.%
\begin{verbbox}[\footnotesize]
\verbatim material
\end{verbbox}
\footnote{See if \theverbbox\ can appear in footnotes.} And we continue\ldots

\end{document}

Answer 5

\cprotect is straightforward to use and flexible (e.g., see this answer to a related question which uses the same solution to use \verb within section titles as well).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{cprotect}

\begin{document}

I want this.\cprotect\footnote{\verb|And, it works!|}

\end{document}

Here is a screenshot (with\textheight adjusted as in the other answers to make the screenshot small):

Answer 6

Another plug for the memoir class: its \verbfootnote allows for verbatim material.

\documentclass{memoir}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[nohead, paperwidth=15cm, paperheight=7cm]{geometry}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
% from the memmoir manual (§ 12.1.1):
Below, footnote~\ref{fn1} is a \verb?\footnote? while
footnote~\ref{fn2} is a \verb?\verbfootnote?.

The \verb?\verbfootnote? command should appear%
\footnote{There may be some problems if color is used.\label{fn1}} %
to give identical results as the normal \verb?\footnote?, but it can
include some verbatim text%
\verbfootnote{The \verb?\footnote? macro, like all other macros except
  for \verb?\verbfootnote?, can not contain verbatim text in its
  argument.\label{fn2}} %
in the \meta{text} argument.

\end{document}