beamer problem with combining columns, listings, and overlays

Question

I am trying to come up with a beamer frame where some listing appears at the left column on overlay 1 and some other stuff appears in its place in overlay 2, while some stuff appears in the right column for both overlays. I came up with this minimal example, which doesn't work, giving me an error

Missing } inserted.
<inserted text> 
                }

If I comment out the \only<1>{}, it works, but not with it and I can't figure it out. Any help would be much appreciated.

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{Madrid}
\usecolortheme{whale}
\beamertemplatenavigationsymbolsempty

\usepackage{listings}

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}[t,fragile]
    \frametitle{Test}

\begin{columns}
\begin{column}{0.4\textwidth}
\only<1>{
\vspace{1cm}
\begin{lstlisting}[language=SQL,mathescape, showstringspaces=false]
SELECT ENAME
FROM PROJ, ASG, EMP
\end{lstlisting}
}

\only<2>{
There is another line of text that I want to appear in left column in the \alert{second} overlay.
}
\end{column}

\begin{column}{0.4\textwidth}
\begin{center}

Some stuff that I want to appear on the right column on both overlays.

\end{center}
\end{column}

\end{columns}


\end{frame}
\end{document}

I should have also added that if I take out the listing and put in a regular text or something, it works. It seems to be a combination of overlays and listing (and perhaps even columns). — ozsu, Jul 02 '15 at 13:40

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Here a solution from this answer

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{Madrid}
\usecolortheme{whale}
\usepackage{listings}

\setbeamertemplate{navigationsymbols}{}

\newsavebox{\mysavebox}


\begin{document}

\begin{lrbox}{\mysavebox}
\begin{lstlisting}[language=SQL,mathescape, showstringspaces=false]
SELECT ENAME
FROM PROJ, ASG, EMP
\end{lstlisting}
\end{lrbox}

\begin{frame}[t,fragile]
    \frametitle{Test}

\begin{columns}
\begin{column}{0.4\textwidth}

\only<1>{
\vspace{1cm}
\usebox{\mysavebox}
}
\only<2>{
There is another line of text that I want to appear in left column in the \alert{second} overlay.
}
\end{column}

\begin{column}{0.4\textwidth}
\begin{center}

Some stuff that I want to appear on the right column on both overlays.

\end{center}
\end{column}

\end{columns}


\end{frame}
\end{document}

Thank you. So, the solution is to make use of \lrbox construct. I'll try that. — ozsu, Jul 02 '15 at 17:34

beamer problem with combining columns, listings, and overlays

1 Answers1