Replacing characters in argument strings

Question

I am trying to create a LaTeX command that will allow me to insert pre-defined tables with a minimum of fuss. This will also allow me to change the overall format of tables (e.g. caption above or below) globally, without having to modify each instance.

Ideally, I am thinking something along the lines of \includetable{label}{caption}, where label corresponds to the float's label (for linking purposes), and caption corresponds to the caption displayed above (or below) the table. I would like to use label for the filename also, e.g. the table contents would be defined in label.tex.

The problem I have is that I use colons in my labels to distinguish tables, figures, and sections in a consistent manner. For example, a table relating to a structure's mass budget would have a label like t:structure:mass; in Windows, I cannot have colons in filenames, so I would like the function \includetable to replace colons with hyphens when calling \input.

The closest thing I've found on Stack Overflow is https://stackoverflow.com/questions/95824/replace-a-character-with-a-string-in-latex, but I can't get this to work with colons instead of commas. Suggestions?

Welcome to TeX.sx! Your question was migrated here from [so]. Please register on this site, too, and make sure that both accounts are associated with each other, otherwise you won't be able to comment on or accept answers or edit your question. — Torbjørn T., Nov 26 '11 at 20:22
possible duplicate: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/8619/replacing-a-substring — 0 _, Jul 19 '14 at 20:41

egreg · Answer 1 · 2012-06-27T13:07:22.547

21

\usepackage{xstring}
\newcommand{\includetable}[2]{%
  \begin{table}
  \centering
  \caption{#2}\label{#1}
  \StrSubstitute{#1}{:}{-}[\temp]%
  \input{\temp}
  \end{table}}

Some variations are possible. One can think, for example, to a key-value syntax for deciding the position of the caption and for providing a short caption.

edited Jun 27 '12 at 13:07

answered Nov 26 '11 at 21:54

egreg

1,121,712

The package is named xstring without the s. – Ludovic Kuty Jun 27 '12 at 13:00

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 15 '17 at 08:34

To be compiled with luaTeX.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{filecontents*}{t-mysection-mytable.tab}
\begin{tabular}{c|c}
  10 & 20 \\
  20 & 40
\end{tabular}
\end{filecontents*}

\def\includetable#1#2{%
  \begin{table}
    \centering
    \input{%
      \directlua{%
        local s, _ = string.gsub("#1",":","-")
        tex.sprint(s)}.tab}%
    \caption{#2}\label{#1}
  \end{table}}

\begin{document}

\includetable{t:mysection:mytable}{My table}

\end{document}

Replacing characters in argument strings

2 Answers2

Linked