Text Formatting ⇒ Concatenating strings

[theo moore]

This is a simple question which, after some time googling I have yet to find an answer: How do you concatenate a string in LaTeX? For example, I wish to write a command that reads in files file1_a.dat, where '1' and 'a' are inputs. So I want something like,

Code: Select all

\newcommand{\readme}[2]{%
 \input{['file', #1, '_', #2, '.dat']}
}

where I've used Matlab notation for combining strings and I would call \readme{a, b}. How is it done in Latex?

[josephwright]

Code: Select all

\newcommand\reame[2]{%
  \input{#1_#2.dat}%
}

(I'm assuming you've dealt properly with the filenames here: underscores tend to be bad news!)

[theo moore]

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\newcommand\reame[2]{%
  \input{#1_#2.dat}%
}

(I'm assuming you've dealt properly with the filenames here: underscores tend to be bad news!)

Just out curiosity, what if you had the actual string '#1' as a file name? For example, my file would actually be named file#1.dat

How would you protect the portion '#1' from being replaced by the input?

[phi]

In that case you have to convert the # into something harmless:

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\edef\x{file\string#1.dat}
\input{\x}