How do I reuse a command name?

Question

I like to give my commands names that correspond to their meaning rather than symbols they produce. For example, I would like to use the symbol \amalg to denote binary coproducts and \coprod to denote coproducts indexed by arbitrary sets, but I would like to call them \coprod and \bigcoprod respectively. If I try to write

\newcommand{\bigcoprod}{\coprod}
\renewcommand{\coprod}{\amalg}

then the first line interprets \coprod as already redefined by the second line and in the effect both \bigcoprod and \coprod produce the same symbol \amalg.

How can I give a new meaning to \coprod, but in the same time retain access to its original meaning in order to rename it to \bigcoprod?

Thank you, this works. Could you point me to some straightforward explanation of the difference between \let and \newcommand? — Karol Szumiło, Nov 22 '12 at 08:22
Heiko Oberdiek additonally wrote the package letltxmacro. Cite of documentation abstract: “TeX’s \let assignment does not work for LaTeX macros with optional arguments or for macros that are defined as robust macros by \DeclareRobustCommand. This package defines \LetLtxMacro that also takes care of the involved internal macros.” — Speravir, Dec 03 '12 at 00:16

egreg · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-03T21:35:06.203

This is a well known "chicken and egg" problem. If you do

\newcommand{\bigcoprod}{\coprod}
\renewcommand{\coprod}{\amalg}

then calling \coprod will be good, while calling \bigcoprod would produce \amalg again. The fact is that macros defined with \newcommand are simply substituted by their replacement text:

\bigcoprod -> \coprod -> \amalg

Finally, \amalg is not a macro, but an instruction to print a certain mathematical symbol.

What you need is to "freeze" the meaning of \coprod:

\let\bigcoprod\coprod

is what you're looking for: the meaning of \bigcoprod is now the same as the meaning \coprod has at the moment \let is executed. If later \coprod is assigned a new meaning, \bigcoprod will not change. So the correct way to proceed is

\newcommand{\bigcoprod}{}
\let\bigcoprod\coprod
\renewcommand{\coprod}{\amalg}

The first line is a safety measure against the possibility that some package loaded earlier defines \bigcoprod. If this happens, you'll know it when the provisional \newcommand is executed. The second line will immediately change the meaning of \bigcoprod to what's desired. Indeed, \let doesn't check whether the command has already a meaning. Something like \let\box\square would be disastrous, if one doesn't take the precaution of testing whether \box is defined (it is, and it's a very important internal command of TeX that mustn't be redefined).

There are some risks in using \let, however, in case the command to be "frozen" has a special definition, namely it was introduced to LaTeX by means of \DeclareRobustCommand or variations thereof, or it has been defined via \newcommand with an optional argument.

The letltxmacro package comes to the rescue and its macro \LetLtxMacro should be used whenever one has the slightest doubt about the command to be "frozen". The syntax is just the same:

\usepackage{letltxmacro}
\newcommand{\bigcoprod}{}
\LetLtxMacro\bigcoprod\coprod
\renewcommand{\coprod}{\amalg}

In this particular case the package is not really needed: "simple" math symbols can always be treated with \let. In other cases \LetLtxMacro can be a life saver.

I didn't check this question for a while so I didn't notice your answer, but that's exactly the kind of explanation I needed. Thanks! — Karol Szumiło, Dec 12 '12 at 07:33

How do I reuse a command name?

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