When to use \NewDocumentCommand vs. \newcommand

Asked Aug 15 '23 at 03:36

Active Aug 15 '23 at 07:38

Viewed 67 times

I'm a layperson who is wondering about the difference between \NewDocumentCommand and \newcommand. I don't know when to choose one or the other.

I'm asking because The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX recommends that we should move to \NewDocumentCommand, but my LaTeX editor, VSCode, does not automatically add my macros to the suggested list when I'm using \NewDocumentCommand, but TeXstudio does.

edited Aug 15 '23 at 07:38

Ingmar

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asked Aug 15 '23 at 03:36

Adrik Ivanov

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Related: Always use \NewDocumentCommand instead of \newcommand? – Alan Munn Aug 15 '23 at 04:03
I think \newcommand*\command{} is more efficient when no arguments are involved, but I might be misremembering. – cfr Aug 15 '23 at 06:28
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@cfr it is (but you won't tell unless you call it millions of times, and the result is different, one is \protected\def, the othe \def – David Carlisle Aug 15 '23 at 07:59
@DavidCarlisle Not worth remembering, then? – cfr Aug 16 '23 at 04:11

When to use \NewDocumentCommand vs. \newcommand

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