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I would like to generate a global table with entries that can be added with a command. I based myself on this post. The issue I have is that I can only display the table after I added all its entries. I wold like to be able to insert the completed table before calling all entries.

What I did so far:

% beginning of global table
\newcommand\startGlobalTable{
    \def\GlobalTable{%
    \begin{longtable}{ ll }
        \hline
        Name & Year \\
        \hline
}}

% appending element to global table
\newcommand\addGlobalTable[2]{
    \edef\GlobalTable{\expandafter\unexpanded\expandafter{%
        \GlobalTable%
            {#1} & {#2} \
        \hline
    }}
}


% display the global table
\newcommand\createGlobalTable{\begin{center}\GlobalTable\end{table}\end{center}}

Whit this setup, the global table is displayed at the end of my document:

\startGlobalTable
Some text some text
\addGlobalTable{Hello}{World}
Some different text
\addGlobalTable{Hello}{Moon}
Some final text
\createGlobalTable

However when writing something like this the table at the beginning is (obviously) empty:

\startGlobalTable
\createGlobalTable
Some text some text
\addGlobalTable{Hello}{World}
Some different text
\addGlobalTable{Hello}{Moon}
Some final text

How can I display the table in the beginning of the document containing all entries that will be added later?

Many thanks in advance for your answers!

Pa Dalton
  • 35
  • 2
    well do it like the \tableofcontents or \listoffigures: write to some external file and then read that in at the next compilation. And be careful with \edef. That shouldn't be use for arbitrary text. – Ulrike Fischer Feb 05 '23 at 11:01
  • What determines the pair of arguments of each \addGlobalTable directive? Are the arguments static or dynamic? Put differently, is it crucial where in the document the \addGlobalTable{...}{...} directives occur? – Mico Feb 05 '23 at 11:12
  • Yes it is, the location where \addGlobalTable is called is crucial. – Pa Dalton Feb 05 '23 at 15:11
  • To Ulrike, I need more than \tableofcontents or \listoffigures, my actual \addGlobalTable is more complex than in the question – Pa Dalton Feb 05 '23 at 15:14
  • Probably you can use the package datatool for maintaining two databases in TeX's memory: One which is created by reading a .csv-file and which contains all data created in the previous latex-run and which is used for obtaining data in the current run. Another one which is used for adding data and which is written to .csv-file at the end of the latex-run. This way you can have TeX/datatool-macros iterate on the database for reading for creating tables/longtables wherever you like. ... – Ulrich Diez Feb 09 '23 at 22:54
  • ... wherever you like. I elaborated on this kind of approach in my answer to Use LaTeX to produce parts lists?. – Ulrich Diez Feb 09 '23 at 22:54

0 Answers0