Number in name of commands?

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Definining commands/abbreviations that contain numbers

I wanted to know if it was possible to define a new command with a name that contains numbers?

e.g. \newcommand{\agent1}{agent~1}

Or even \ag1ent if having a number at the end is problematic.

I couldn't find the answer in the FAQ.

Duplicate of Defining commands/abbreviations that contain numbers. The simple answer is that it's marginally possible in some cases, but not recommended. — Alan Munn, Sep 19 '11 at 14:17

score 27 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 19 '11 at 14:08

From lshort, section 1.3.3:

[Commands] start with a backslash \ and then have a name consisting of letters only. Command names are terminated by a space, a number or any other ‘non-letter.’

Numbers are thus not allowed as part of a command name.

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 19 '11 at 14:16

You can always use:

\expandafter\def\csname agent1 \endcsname{agent 1}

and use it as

\csname agent1 \endcsname

Both LaTeX and ConText provide wrappers around this. LaTeX uses \@namedef and \@nameuse as wrappers, while ConTeXt uses \setvalue and \getvalue as wrappers.

Number in name of commands?

2 Answers2

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