Is there any way I can define a variable in LaTeX

Question

In LaTeX  how can I define a string variable whose content is used instead of the variable in the compiled PDF   Let s say I m writing a tech doc on a software and I want to define the package name in the preamble or somewhere so that if its name changes  I don t have to replace it in a lot of places but only in one place

User · Answer

For variables describing distances  you would use  newlength  and manipulate the values with  setlength   addlength   settoheight    settolength and  settodepth    Similarly you have access to  newcounter for things like section and figure numbers which should increment throughout the document  I ve used this one in the past to provide code samples that were numbered separatly of other figures     Also of note is  makebox which allows you to store a bit of laid-out document for later re-use  and for use with  settolength

User · Answer

Use  def command    def  variable  Something that s better to use as a variable    Be aware that  def overrides preexisting macros without any warnings and therefore can cause various subtle errors  To overcome this either use namespaced variables like my var or fall back to  newcommand   renewcommand commands instead

User · Answer

add the following to you preamble    newcommand  newCommandName  text to insert    Then you can just use  newCommandName   in the text  For more info on  newcommand  see e g  wikibooks  Example    documentclass article   newcommand x 30   begin document   x  end document    Output   30

User · Answer

If you want to use  newcommand  you can also include  usepackage xspace  and define command by  newcommand  newCommandName  text to insert xspace   This can allow you to just use  newCommandName rather than  newCommandName     For more detail  http   www math tamu edu  harold boas courses math696 why-macros html

User · Answer

This works for me   newcommand  variablename  the text  For eg   newcommand m 100  So when you type  quot   m  is my mark  quot  in the source code  the pdf output displays as   100 is my mark

User · Answer

I think you probably want to use a token list for this purpose  to set up the token list  newtoks packagename to assign the name   packagename  New Name for the package  to put the name into your output   the packagename

[variables] Is there any way I can define a variable in LaTeX?

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