Replace from a list of possible strings

Question

I'm creating a large number of identical documents in LaTeX, with only the address changing (and the address will be only 1 of 5 possible )

So if my list of possible addresses is:
DC | 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC FV | 2014 Forest Hills Drive, Fayetteville, NC NY | 1 World Trade Center, New York, NY SP | 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield, USA

I want to be able to type (for example) \fillinadd{DC} and have it fill in the proper address in text, so if I were to have a letter like:

\documentclass{letter}

\signature{Maurice Moss}
\newcommand{\fillinadd}[1]{#1}

\begin{document}

\begin{letter}{
Fire Department \\
\fillinadd{DC}}

\opening{Dear Sir / Madam,}
Fire! Fire! Help me! 123 Carrendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you.
\closing{All the best,}

\end{letter}
\end{document}

It would replace the "DC" with "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC", but if I put in "SP" it would print 742 Evergreen Terrace instead.

Alternately, if there is a better way to identify these possible addresses (ie #1, #2, etc), I'm fine with using that.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 03 '15 at 21:05

Here is what I do

\documentclass{letter}

\signature{Maurice Moss}

\newcommand{\DC}{1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC}
\newcommand{\FV}{2014 Forest Hills Drive, Fayetteville, NC}
\newcommand{\NY}{1 World Trade Center, New York, NY}
\newcommand{\SP}{742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield, USA}


\begin{document}

\begin{letter}{
Fire Department \\ \DC}

\opening{Dear Sir / Madam,}
Fire! Fire! Help me! 123 Carrendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you.
\closing{All the best,}

\end{letter}
\end{document}

musarithmia · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-03T22:41:00.717

2

If you only need five addresses, then define them as commands. You could put the definitions in a separate file and input it to the main file, or just put them in the preamble.

\newcommand{\DC}{%
    123 Main Street,\\ 
    Washington, DC%
}
\newcommand{\LA}{%
    123 Main Street,\\ 
    Los Angeles, CA%
}

How you write the commands will be determined by their eventual use. Here I'm assuming something like this:

\newcommand{\fromaddress}{%
    \noindent%
    \begin{tabular}{l}
    #1\\
    \end{tabular}%
}

You can use it like this:

\fromaddress{\DC}

edited Jul 03 '15 at 22:41

answered Jul 03 '15 at 21:06

musarithmia

12,463

This makes sense. My eventual use is to be able to manipulate them using the command line (a la here), so I can generate these files on the fly. I'm assuming I would define \fromaddress{} to be either whatever I have inputted, or \DC{} if it's undefined. – Roger Filmyer Jul 03 '15 at 21:26
I got it working! All you have to do is make your address commands (see @touhami 's answer), and then have a command named \fromaddress where you put the address, and then have a line like so: \ifthenelse{\isundefined{\fromaddress}}{\newcommand{\fromaddress}{\DC}}{} that you can use. Finally, when running pdflatex, use something like this: pdflatex "\def\fromaddress{\NY} \input{resume.tex}" to change the address. – Roger Filmyer Jul 03 '15 at 21:55

Replace from a list of possible strings

2 Answers2