General ⇒ New Command to define a Variable

[bumbolol]

Hi,

I'm making my own document class. In this class, I want to print a page according to some information provided by the user of the class. This is very similar to the '\maketitle' command that retrieves information set by commands such as '\title' or '\author'.

Since there is a lot of information that can be set by the user of the class, I need to declare as much variables. To spare me the time of writing numerous times the necessary calls to '\def' and '\gdef' commands, I'm trying to write a new command that does it for me.

Here is what I came up with:

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\newcommand{\defvar}[2]{\def#1##1{\gdef#2{##1}}#1{}}

For example, it can be used like this:

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\defvar{\name}{\getname}

The document class then just use the command '\getname' to get the string set by the document using the command '\name'.

Here is my question: is there a way to make it even shorter, like this:

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\defvar{name}

Which means, is there a way to make the '\defvar' command deducts the name of the setter and the name of the getter from the string provided by the one parameter it is given ?

Any other solution that could give the same result is of course welcome.

Regards.

[cgnieder]

You could use \@namedef:

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\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\newcommand*\DefVar[1]{\@namedef{#1}##1{\global\@namedef{get#1}{##1}}}
\makeatother
\DefVar{Name}\DefVar{Haus}\DefVar{Auto}

\Name{Mein Name}
\Haus{Mein Haus}
\Auto{Mein Auto}

\begin{document}

\getName, \getHaus, \getAuto

\end{document}

[bumbolol]

Thanks Clemens, that seems to be a better solution than mine. I have a tiny problem though. With my newcommand, setting a variable was optional. For example, if I don't use '\Haus' then '\getHaus' would just equals to '\empty' (which can be tested). With your newcommand, I get an 'Undefined control sequence' error.

Of course, I could just set it to empty right after the definition:

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\DefVar{Haus}\Haus{}

But I would be somewhat back to square one, it is not longer shorter than using my newcommand.

Would you also have an idea for that one ?

Regards.

[bumbolol]

Reply to myself: just use '\@nameuse' at the end of the newcommand. In the end, it looks like this:

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\newcommand\DefVar*[1]{\@namedef{#1}##1{\global\@namedef{get#1}{##1}}\@nameuse{#1}{}}

Problem solved, thanks again Clemens. Is there a need to put 'SOLVED' in the title of the thread now ?

Regards.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

Is there a need to put 'SOLVED' in the title of the thread now?

it would be great if you would edit the first post in the thread and choose the checkmark as topic icon. That's the way we notice open and solved questions here, no SOLVED necessary, to be consistent.

Thanks!

Stefan

[bumbolol]

Done.