Gfyuki

I have control_array.tex and 10 templateA.tex, templateB.tex, ... TeX files. In control_array.tex:

• ArrayName = [Name1,Name2,...Name10]


• ArrayColor = [Color1,Color2,...Color10]

With Array in control_array.tex I can change all variable only one time in all templates: templateA.tex, templateB.tex, ...

Here's my MWE:

documentclass[a4paper,twoside,12pt]{article}

usepackage{xcolor}

begin{document}

%Call Name1, Nam10...Color 1, Color2...Color10

begin{enumerate}

item textcolor{color1}{Name1}

item textcolor{color2}{Name2}

item textcolor{color3}{Name3}

end{enumerate}

textcolor{color4}{Name9} \

textcolor{color5}{Name8}

end{document}

How can I do it with LaTeX? Any ideas are welcome.

You could use pgffor for that.

documentclass[a4paper,twoside,12pt]{article}

usepackage{pgffor}

usepackage{xcolor}

begin{document}

defArrayNames{{"koala","duck","marmot","penguin","bear"}}

defArrayColors{{"gray","yellow","blue","red","brown"}}

begin{enumerate}

foreach X in {0,...,4}

{pgfmathsetmacro{myname}{ArrayNames[X]}

pgfmathsetmacro{mycolor}{ArrayColors[X]}

item textcolor{mycolor}{myname}}

end{enumerate}

end{document}

Or with an external file (which I create here for the convenience of others in the MWE, but you may drop the filecontents stuff as long you have a data file).

documentclass[a4paper,twoside,12pt]{article}

usepackage{filecontents}

begin{filecontents*}{myarrays.tex}

defArrayNames{{"koala","duck","marmot","penguin","bear"}}

defArrayColors{{"gray","yellow","blue","red","brown"}}

end{filecontents*}

usepackage{pgffor}

usepackage{xcolor}

begin{document}

input{myarrays.tex}

begin{enumerate}

foreach X in ArrayNames

{foreach Y [count=Z starting from 0]in X 

{pgfmathsetmacro{mycolor}{ArrayColors[Z]}

pgfmathsetmacro{myname}{ArrayNames[Z]}

item textcolor{mycolor}{myname}}}

end{enumerate}

end{document}

Trivial with listofitems.

documentclass{article}

usepackage{listofitems,xcolor}

newcommandArrayNames{Name1,Name2,N3,N4,N5,N6,N7,N8,N9,Name10}

newcommandArrayColors{red,blue,cyan,cyan!50!red,red!50,

  purple,green,yellow,blue!50,magenta}

readlist*arrayname{ArrayNames}

readlist*arraycolor{ArrayColors}

begin{document}

begin{enumerate}

foreachitemxinarrayname{item textcolor{arraycolor[xcnt]}{x}}

end{enumerate}



textcolor{arraycolor[4]}{arrayname[9]}



textcolor{arraycolor[5]}{arrayname[8]}

end{document}

In a very simplistic way you can place a number of color definitions using (say) colorlet{colorX}{<colour>} inside color_array.tex and load them within the document preamble:

documentclass{article}



% Just for this example, create control_array.tex that contains all the colour definitions

usepackage{filecontents}

begin{filecontents*}{control_array.tex}

usepackage{xcolor}

colorlet{color1}{blue}

colorlet{color2}{green}

colorlet{color3}{red!30!yellow}

colorlet{color4}{rgb:black,1;red,2;orange,3}

colorlet{color5}{black!50}

end{filecontents*}



input{control_array}% Input colour definitions



begin{document}



begin{enumerate}

  item textcolor{color1}{Name1}

  item textcolor{color2}{Name2}

  item textcolor{color3}{Name3}

end{enumerate}



textcolor{color4}{Name9}



textcolor{color5}{Name8}



end{document}

Note that input{color_array} is called within the preamble since color_array.tex includes a call to load xcolor which can only be called within the preamble.