Text Formatting ⇒ Write accented characters to file using \write

[giampierosalvi]

Hi,
I am trying to output some information to an auxiliary file using \write and among other things I have authors names that often include accented letters. If I use the string explicitly the accented letters are expanded into TeX commands, but I can solve this by using \unexpanded. However, if the string is contained in a variable, and I use \unexpanded, I get the name of the variable instead of its content. The command \unexpanded works fine again if the variable is a command parameter, for example #1.

I don't have an understanding of expansion that is clear enough to sort this out, so any help is appreciated. All I want to do is to write the content of a variable holding a string with accented letters to the text file.

Thank you!

Here is a minimal example:

Code: Select all

Code, edit and compile here:

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\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\newwrite\file
\immediate\openout\file=\jobname_extra.txt
\AtEndDocument{\closeout\file}
\begin{document}
\immediate\write\file{Test 1}                   % works fine
\immediate\write\file{José}                     % expands into TeX code
\immediate\write\file{\unexpanded{José}}          % works fine
\def\mystring{José}
\immediate\write\file{\mystring}                  % expands into TeX code
\immediate\write\file{\unexpanded{\mystring}}    % outputs \mystring literally
\newcommand{\writeaccented}[1]{
  \immediate\write\file{\unexpanded{#1}}
}
\writeaccented{José}                            % works fine
\end{document}
 
 
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[Johannes_B]

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