General ⇒ Issues when using \put in a command definition

[migf]

I need a command that uses \put to add a hyperlink to a picture and defined it like this

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\newcommand{\myput}[3]{\put(#1){\makebox(0,0){\hyperlink{#2}{#3}}}}

This command is used in the context of a \multido loop from the package of same name, e.g.

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\myput{550,300}{lnkB.2}{$\rightarrow $}

but this raises the error

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! Illegal unit of measure (pt inserted).

Is there any error in my definition or is there some limitation on the way \put can be used?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Can you provide some code context? Can you provide a minimal working example? (Nobody can test these two lines without a small document, and one has to guess which packages to use.)

Stefan

[migf]

Sorry, I did not add a MWE because I thought this would be some basic problem in the command definition.

In fact it is not: to reproduce the error I had to use the multido package and also the listofitems one.

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\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{a4}
\usepackage{multido}
\usepackage{listofitems}

\newcommand{\myput}[3]{\put(#1){\makebox(0,0){\hyperlink{#2}{#3}}}}
\newcommand{\hyperlink}[2]{#2 to #1}%  the original document uses the hyperref package

\newcommand{\addlink}[1]{
 \myput{#1}{p.2}{$\rightarrow $}
}

\newcommand{\addlinks}{%  this works as expected
\multido{\ix=3+6}{2}{%
 \multido{\iy=3+5}{2}{\addlink{\ix,\iy}}%
}%
}

\newcommand{\addlist}[1]{%               the argument has the form  x1,y1;x2,y2;...
\setsepchar{;,}\readlist\lOfItems{#1}%  creates a list of lists ((x1 y1) (x2 y2) ...)
\multido{\ik=1+1}{\lOfItemslen}{%        iterates on the top level list
 \addlink{\lOfItems[\ik,1],\lOfItems[\ik,2]}%  uses coordinates x,y
}%
}

\begin{document}

\setlength{\unitlength}{1cm}

\begin{center}
\begin{picture}(18,10)
  \addlink{6,6}  \addlinks % ok
  \addlist{1,2;7,4}% list of x,y coordinates
\end{picture}  
\end{center}

\end{document}

The error message is

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! Illegal unit of measure (pt inserted).
<to be read again> 
                   ]
l.34   \addlist{1,2;7,4}
                        % list of x,y coordinates

It seems there are problems with the listofitems package. A simpler version of this MWE gave another error: if \addlist is defined by

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\newcommand{\addlist}[1]{%
\setsepchar{;}\readlist\lOfItems{#1}%
\multido{\ik=1+1}{\lOfItemslen}{%
 \addlink{\lOfItems[\ik]}
}%
}

i.e., by taking the coordinates list as a flat list (x1,y1 x2,y2 ...), there is the following error

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Runaway argument?
\lOfItems [\ik ] ){\makebox (0,0){\hyperlink {p.2}{$\rightarrow \ETC.
! File endedRunaway argument?

that I could not get rid of...

[migf]

Correction to the MWE above

A slash is missing in the argument of \setsepchars in the first definition of \addlist. The correct definition is

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\newcommand{\addlist}[1]{%
\setsepchar{;/,}\readlist\lOfItems{#1}%
\multido{\ik=1+1}{\lOfItemslen}{%
 \addlink{\lOfItems[\ik,1],\lOfItems[\ik,2]}
}%
}

[migf]

I have found the problem: the macros created by the listofitems package to index list elements cannot be directly used as arguments to the \addlink command in the MWE. Instead of them its \itemtomacro command must be used to obtain fully expandable macros for the elements.

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\newcommand{\addlist}[1]{%
\setsepchar{;/,}\readlist\lOfItems{#1}%
\multido{\ik=1+1}{\lOfItemslen}{%
 \itemtomacro\lOfItems[\ik,1]\xcoord%
 \itemtomacro\lOfItems[\ik,2]\ycoord%
 \addlink{\xcoord,\ycoord}
}%
}

Hope this can be of help to others.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Great to see that it's solved! Thanks for posting the solution.

At the beginning, just seeing \put and \hyperlink with a box wasn't clear, that's why I asked for a MWE. I tested it, the problem was not easy to see, so good that you found it.

Stefan