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I am trying to work with a string parsing macro, found in the answer of TeX capacity exceeded while parsing a date string - TeX - LaTeX.

Basically, I have strings num01, num02... num09 - from these, I would like to extract the last character; and this code, for instance, works (with pdflatex): 

\documentclass{article}

\def\parseMyNumHelper num0#1\relax{\edef\MyNum{#1}}
\def\parseMyNum#1{\edef\temp{#1}%
  \expandafter\parseMyNumHelper\temp\relax}

\begin{document}

  \edef\myid{num01}

%   \begin{minipage}
    \parseMyNum{\myid}
    \typeout{ ======== \temp === \MyNum }
%   \end{minipage}

\end{document}

... resulting with this in the log output:

...
 ======== num01=== 1
(./a.aux) )
...

 

However, now just uncomment the begin/end {minipage} statements; the code immediately crashes with: 

...
(./a.aux
)
! Missing number, treated as zero.
<to be read again> 
                   \edef 
l.12     \parseMyNum
                    {\myid}
...

... and even if I proceed a bit with looking at \parseMyNum, I cannot see anything strange:

? i
insert>\show\parseMyNum
! Illegal unit of measure (pt inserted).
<to be read again> 
                   \show 
l.12     \parseMyNum
                    {\myid}
? i
insert>\typeout{ \meaning\parseMyNum }
 macro:#1->\edef \temp {#1}\expandafter \parseMyNumHelper \temp \relax 
> \parseMyNum=macro:
#1->\edef \temp {#1}\expandafter \parseMyNumHelper \temp \relax .
<insert>  \show\parseMyNum

l.12     \parseMyNum
                    {\myid}

Any ideas why the parsing macro \parseMyNum fails when within a minipage environment - and how to have a similar string parsing macro, working both within and outside of minipage and other environments?

Many thanks in advance for any answers,
Cheers!

Community
  • 1
sdaau
  • 17,079
  • 3
    minipage looks for its argument: \begin{minipage}{width}... – Ulrike Fischer May 23 '12 at 10:02
  • 2
    To confirm Ulrike's comment, if you put \begin{minipage}{\textwidth} then it works again. (Admittedly, this is far from obvious when looking at the log file! But a good debugging strategy is to also comment out the stuff you're trying to debug just to check that without it the document compiles okay.) – Andrew Stacey May 23 '12 at 10:09
  • And indeed it is (looking for it argument) :) Many thanks for that @UlrikeFischer - would you mind posting your comment as an answer, so I can accept it? Cheers! – sdaau May 23 '12 at 10:12

1 Answers1

7

minipage looks for its argument: \begin{minipage}{width}...

Ulrike Fischer
  • 327,261
  • Many thanks for that, @UlrikeFischer - wish sometimes Latex would be able to give a message like "Error: environment minipage missing argument: \begin{minipage}..."; instead of: "Error: Missing number, treated as zero: \parseMyNum..." ... but thankfully, it's solved now :) Cheers! – sdaau May 23 '12 at 10:21
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    @sdaau: The argument is not missing. minipage is using your parseMyNum as argument and tells you that it hasn't the correct content. You would get a similar error if you forget e.g. the slash before a width: \begin{minipage}{textwidth} – Ulrike Fischer May 23 '12 at 10:35
  • Ah, I see - many thanks for that as well, @UlrikeFischer; I didn't come to the conclusion that "minipage is using your parseMyNum as argument" until now; it starts making a lot more sense. Could you also comment on why also forgetting the slash before a width would be similar? Is it that, not being a command, Latex will ignore the {textwidth}, and keep going until the next time it sees a backslash - a command, as demanded for minipage's argument? Thanks again - Cheers! – sdaau May 23 '12 at 10:56
  • 2
    No minipage will not ignore {textwidth}. It's its argument and it will try to use it. But the argument of minipage should be a width – in the end (after expansion) it should be a number followed by an unit like cm or pt. So if the argument start with "t" minipage will complain Missing number. – Ulrike Fischer May 23 '12 at 11:06