6

I have several pairs of graphs. I need to display these graphs in latex. I am using the following which works Great.

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \begin{subfigure}{.5\textwidth}
    \centering
    \fbox{\includegraphics[width=.8\linewidth]{4-byVar1.png}}
    \caption{``Here's a question?'' (by Var1)}
    \label{fig:4-byVar1}
  \end{subfigure}%
  \begin{subfigure}{.5\textwidth}
    \centering
    \fbox{\includegraphics[width=.8\linewidth]{4-byVar2.png}}
    \caption{``Here's a question?'' (by Var2)}
    \label{fig:4-byVar2}
  \end{subfigure}
  \caption{``Here's a question?''}
  \label{fig:comboFig-4}
\end{figure}

However, that's a lot of code to repeat for each such pair of figures. I created a 

\newcommand

to do the work for me, but it seems that when I try to ref a figure created by my newcommand, i get an error (fig undefined).

Can anyone recommend how I can refer to a label created by a newcommand?

The newcommand I created looks like this

\newcommand{\graphPairs}[2]{
  \begin{figure}
    \centering
    \begin{subfigure}{.5\textwidth}
      \centering
      \fbox{\includegraphics[width=.8\linewidth]{#2-byCar1.png}}
      \caption{#1 (by Var 1)}
      \label{fig:#2-byVar1}
    \end{subfigure}%
    \begin{subfigure}{.5\textwidth}
      \centering
      \fbox{\includegraphics[width=.8\linewidth]{#2-byVar2.png}}
      \caption{#1 (by Var 2)}
      \label{fig:#2-byVar2}
    \end{subfigure}
    \caption{#1}
    \label{fig:comboFig-#2}
  \end{figure}
}
lockstep
  • 250,273
Michael
  • 229

2 Answers2

9

It does not matter, that \label is hidden in a \newcommand. For referencing you need the label name that depends on the second argument of \graphPairs. The first example would be generated by:

\graphPairs{``Here's a question?''}{4}

And the labels can be referenced by

\ref{fig:4-byVar1}
\ref{fig:4-byVar2}
\ref{fig:comboFig-4}
Heiko Oberdiek
  • 271,626
7

TeX is a macro processor so it just does textual substitution of your command by its definition before \label is even considered. so if your command is called as

 \graphPairs{cap}{myfile}

Then your three \label are

\label{fig:myfile-byVar1}

and

\label{fig:myfile-byVar2}

and

\label{fig:comboFig-myfile}

so can be referenced as \ref{fig:myfile-byVar1}, \ref{fig:myfile-byVar2}, \ref{fig:comboFig-myfile}.

As always, it takes a couple of runs for references to be defined.

David Carlisle
  • 757,742
  • Thanks for your response. I think the "it takes a couple of runs" is what's holding me up. I had been using an IDE (sublime text 2 with mactex on a OS X) to build the PDF for me (so I have no idea what command to use and etc.). I tried running pdflatex mysourcefile.tex and that seemed to go ok, but even after running it a few times in a row, I am getting this warning: LaTeX Warning: Reference `fig:comboFig-5' on page 25 undefined on input line 558. Any further suggestion? – Michael Nov 27 '12 at 17:29
  • fig:comboFig-5 would correspond to calling your command with the 2nd argument being {5} so loading images 5-byCar1.png and 5-byVar1.png is that what you did? it always help if your question contains complete runnable documents that demonstrate the problem. – David Carlisle Nov 27 '12 at 17:59