Parsing and programming in TikZ

Question

Background: I'be been reading the PGF manual (keys section) and today the TeX Book just arrived in the mail and just started reading chapter 7 (How TeX reads what you type) -- feeling like Mickey Mouse in "The Sorcerers Apprentice".

I want (but this is not the question) to do a routine that does something like that:

   input:   a,b ; c,d ; e,f.
   output:  a\nodepart{b} && c\nodepart{d} && e\nodepart{f}\\

My idea was to use the PGF parser to read the input. If I were using the languages I know (old Basic, Python, Maple script) I would save intermediary results in a variable but for what I understood so far LaTeX/TeX/ and TikZ/PGF do not work in this way. There is no string manipulation routines. I know we can store stuff into pgf keys. Before you stop reading I better ask my questions:

Are there any examples of (LaTeX/TeX/ and TikZ/PGF) code that reads some input of variable lenght possibly more than ten and spits some other code?
With the example above in mind, which references should I read to be able to implement the routine in an efficient way?

Post-script:

Reading the suggested tags, I just learn about the LaTeX parse package, will check it also.
@egreg: The ultimate goal will be to define a bimatrix environment in TikZ to display two-player games in normal form. The idea is to create outputs similar to this http://www.maths.lse.ac.uk/Personal/stengel/bimatrixgame/example.pdf but with the intuitive and human-like language we see in TikZ constructs.

@JLDiaz: Thanks! Please correct me if I am wrong. The accepted answer to the question you mentioned works only if the input has a fixed number of parts but the second answer does the job, right? — Sergio Parreiras, May 12 '14 at 15:55
Yes, the second one uses some low-level tricks to adapt itself to an arbitrary number of words. You can have fun trying to understand this solution armed with your new book of spells :-) — JLDiaz, May 12 '14 at 16:00
It's important to know where and how you want to use this. Can you make an example? — egreg, May 12 '14 at 16:16
You may be able to use any of the options listed in How to iterate over a comma separated list? — Werner, May 12 '14 at 16:31
@egreg: Thanks, I hope my edit in the question addresses your comment. — Sergio Parreiras, May 12 '14 at 16:57
You can use a recursive macro definition to do the transformation you show very simply in pure TeX, though I don't know if that helps with your real question. (Let me know if you would be interested in seeing this as an answer.) — David Z, May 12 '14 at 19:46

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

3

This is an adaptation of the second answer of the question How do I split a string? to your problem. It is not exactly what you want, but it can help to get you on the way.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\makeatletter
\def\processArg#1,#2{%
  #1 nodepart #2
}
\def\myutil@empty{}
\def\severalparts#1;#2\@nil{%
 \def\NextArg{#2}%
 \processArg#1%
 \ifx\myutil@empty\NextArg
     \let\next\@gobble
 \else XX
 \fi
 \next#2\@nil
}%
\def\ProcessString#1{%
   \let\next\severalparts
   \next#1;\@nil %
}%
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\ProcessString{a,b;c,d;e,f}
\end{document}

This the pdf output:

Result

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Community

1

answered May 12 '14 at 16:14

JLDiaz

55,732

@SergioParreiras And, as Mickey the sorcercer learned the hard way, always remember to include a termination condition in your loops. Otherwise, infinite expansion will lead to overflow :-) – JLDiaz May 13 '14 at 08:19

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 10 '20 at 12:32

2

If you are willing to slightly change the input format a simpler solution is to use \foreach:

enter image description here

Notes:

This may or may not work for you depending on your particular application.
The intermediate step using an \edef allows this to be used with a string, or a macro defined string. See TikZ \foreach loop with macro-defined list for more details.

Code:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\newcommand*{\ProcessString}[1]{%
    \edef\StringToProcess{#1}%
    \foreach \x/\y in \StringToProcess {%
        \x\ nodepart {\y} XX
    }%
}%
\newcommand*{\MyStrings}{x/y,w/u,1/2}%
\begin{document}
\ProcessString{a/b,c/d,e/f}
\bigskip
\ProcessString{\MyStrings}
\end{document}

edited Jun 10 '20 at 12:32

Community

1

answered May 12 '14 at 16:50

Peter Grill

223,288

1

Why \StringToProcess intermediate variable? You can use \foreach ... in {#1}. There are unknown caveats? – JLDiaz May 12 '14 at 16:52
2

@JLDiaz: The intermediate step is useful as you can use it with a direct string, or a string defined via a macro. See updated solution. – Peter Grill May 12 '14 at 16:58
@PeterGrill: Neat! But is there a way we can have the characters \ and { in the output? That is: a\nodepart{b} instead of a nodepart b? – Sergio Parreiras May 12 '14 at 17:03
@SergioParreiras: Sure, just add a \{ and \}. Have updated solution. However, as I warned in the solution, this may or may not work for you depending on the actual application. – Peter Grill May 12 '14 at 17:12
1

@Sergio I haven't tested, but try saying \string\nodepart or \cs{nodepart} in place of the plain nodepart. – Sean Allred May 12 '14 at 17:14

Parsing and programming in TikZ

2 Answers2

Notes:

Code: