verbatim within… a package delivers a string from a file and that string needs to be printed without interpretation

Question

The csvtools package warns in its documentation from interpretable inputs but offers no solution as far as I can see.

This Code generates a table

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{csvtools}

\begin{document}

\newcommand{\DATARow}[4]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4\\[.5ex]}

\setcsvseparator{;}

\CSVtotabular%
{stackoverflow.csv}%
{|c|c|c|c|}%
{\DATARow{ID}{REGISTER}{TYPE}{FORMULA}}%
{\DATARow{\insertID}{\insertREGISTER}{\insertTYPE}{\insertFORMULA}}%
{\DATARow{\insertID}{\insertREGISTER}{\insertTYPE}{\insertFORMULA}}

\end{document}

using this file as a source:

ID;REGISTER;TYPE;FORMULA
A_B_C_D;0xD000720C;UINT(16);$Y = \frac{57426}{10^8} \cdot X$
ONE;0xD020720C;UINT(8);$Y = 109 \cdot X$
TWO.FOUR;0xD080720C;INT(16);$Y = \frac{57426}{X}$
Thirty[2];0xD009720C;INT(8);$Y = X$
TreeHouse;0xD200720C;UINT(32);$Y = \frac{X}{10^8} \cdot X$

The problem is in the ID string: A_B_C_D it should be printed as is but gets interpreted as math and printed like $A_{BCD}$

How can i modify the DATARow so that A_B_C_D is shown correctly?

Answer 1

You can use \detokenize to make _ safe and T1 encoding and \texttt to display it literally.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{csvtools}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}

\newcommand{\DATARow}[4]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4\\[.5ex]}
\def\verbid{%
\texttt{\edef\tmp{\insertID}\expandafter\detokenize\expandafter{\tmp}}}

\setcsvseparator{;}

\CSVtotabular%
{stackoverflow.csv}%
{|c|c|c|c|}%
{\DATARow{ID}{REGISTER}{TYPE}{FORMULA}}%
{\DATARow{\verbid}{\insertREGISTER}{\insertTYPE}{\insertFORMULA}}%
{\DATARow{\verbid}{\insertREGISTER}{\insertTYPE}{\insertFORMULA}}

\end{document}

Answer 2

You have a number of possibilities. All of the following solutions allow for using _ in formulas with the usual meaning. My preference would go to the third one.

Making _ active

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{csvtools}

\newcommand{\DATARow}[4]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4\\[.5ex]}
\setcsvseparator{;}

%%% Make _ active
\catcode`\_=\active
\protected\def_{\ifmmode\sb\else\_\fi}
%%%

\begin{document}

\CSVtotabular{stackoverflow.csv}%
  {|c|c|c|c|}%
  {\DATARow{ID}{REGISTER}{TYPE}{FORMULA}}%
  {\DATARow{\insertID}{\insertREGISTER}{\insertTYPE}{\insertFORMULA}}%
  {\DATARow{\insertID}{\insertREGISTER}{\insertTYPE}{\insertFORMULA}}

\end{document}

Making _ a normal character and math active globally

Note that the T1 encoding is necessary for this solution

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{csvtools}

\newcommand{\DATARow}[4]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4\\[.5ex]}
\setcsvseparator{;}

%%% Make _ a normal character and math active
\catcode`\_=12
\AtBeginDocument{\mathcode`\_=\string"8000 }
\begingroup\lccode`\~=`\_
\lowercase\endgroup{\let~\sb}
%%%

\begin{document}

\CSVtotabular{stackoverflow.csv}%
  {|c|c|c|c|}%
  {\DATARow{ID}{REGISTER}{TYPE}{FORMULA}}%
  {\DATARow{\insertID}{\insertREGISTER}{\insertTYPE}{\insertFORMULA}}%
  {\DATARow{\insertID}{\insertREGISTER}{\insertTYPE}{\insertFORMULA}}

\end{document}

Make _ a character and math active only locally

Again the T1 encoding is necessary.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{csvtools}

\newcommand{\DATARow}[4]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4\\[.5ex]}
\setcsvseparator{;}

%%% Make _ a normal character and math active
\newcommand{\specialunderscore}{%
  \catcode`\_=12
  \mathcode`\_=\string"8000
  \begingroup\lccode`\~=`\_
  \lowercase\endgroup{\let~\sb}}

%%% Define a wrapper around \CSVtotabular
\newcommand{\xCSVtotabular}[6][]{%
  \begingroup#1\CSVtotabular{#2}{#3}{#4}{#5}{#6}\endgroup}

%%%

\begin{document}

\xCSVtotabular[\specialunderscore]{stackoverflow.csv}%
  {|c|c|c|c|}%
  {\DATARow{ID}{REGISTER}{TYPE}{FORMULA}}%
  {\DATARow{\insertID}{\insertREGISTER}{\insertTYPE}{\insertFORMULA}}%
  {\DATARow{\insertID}{\insertREGISTER}{\insertTYPE}{\insertFORMULA}}

\end{document}

The \xCSVtotabular accepts an optional argument that should consist of assignments such as \specialunderscore or similar ones that locally change some meaning of tokens.