macros
I want to define a macro \create that accept a single mandatory argument from which another new macro is created and named.
The following code snippet may speak clearer what I want to achieve. But the following code cannot be compiled because it is wrong. 🙂
\documentclass{article}
\newcommand\create[1]{%
\newcommand\#1{My name is #1}}
\begin{document}
\create{test}
\test
\end{document}
How to define a macro to create a new macro with a name passed as its argument?
If by base directory you mean the directory with article.cls in, then that is not a good place, the base directory indicates the core LaTeX distribution and will get overwritten on any update.
Using .sty is not what you want here, if you do use .sty then you could load your additional package with
\usepackage{xxx}
as normal.
If you name the files for your class themes in a unique way, say theme xxx gets stored in the file xxx.mycls-def then you can define a custom loading command in your class file something like
\def\usetheme#1{\input{#1.mycls-def}}
Or perhaps adding \makeatletter if your theme files need to allow @.
There are a number of ways to achieve this:
\documentclass{article}
\def\deffunA#1{\expandafter\def\csname #1\endcsname##1{#1(##1)}}
\newcommand{\deffunB}[1]{\expandafter\newcommand\csname #1\endcsname[1]{#1(##1)}}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\newcommand{\deffunC}[1]{\csdef{#1}##1{#1(##1)}}
\begin{document}
\deffunA{abc}
$\abc{123}$
\deffunB{ghi}
$\ghi{123}$
\deffunC{jkl}
$\jkl{123}$
\end{document}
\deffunA uses a pure TeX way of defining a macro, while \deffunB is a LaTeX-related way of doing it. \deffunC uses etoolbox which provides a neat interface for defining macros. See section 3.1.1 Macro Definitions of the documentation. In fact, \csdef uses the LaTeX-defined \@namedef... yet another way of achieving what you're after.
Best Answer
Use
\csname #1\endcsnamewhich must be expanded before\newcommandusing\expandafter:If you want to pass the macro as control sequence instead, i.e.
\foobarinstead offoobarthen you need to turn it into a string and remove the backslash:There is also the
\@namedefmacro which is defined as\expandafter\def\csname #1\endcsname, so you can use it as:The
etoolboxpackage also provides a basically identical, but robust macro called\csdef. For both you can provide a parameter text, e.g. for arguments direct after the name argument:\csdef{name}#1#2{some code with two arguments #1 and #2}(the#have to be doubled inside another macro).