# How to fill a dynamically generated table with dynamic content?

how do I generate a tabular dynamically while filling it with dynamic data?

Example: Let's say I have

\def\N{10}


and I want to generate a table with \N columns, where the top cell of each column contains the number of the column, like

\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|...|c|}
1 & 2 & 3 & ... & N
\end{tabular}


This was the closest I got:

\newtoks\cols
\cols={}
\newcounter{i}
\setcounter{i}{1}
\loop
\cols=\expandafter{\the\cols \arabic{i}}
\ifnum\value{i}<\N
\cols=\expandafter{\the\cols &}
\stepcounter{i}
\repeat

\begin{tabular}{|*{\N}{c|}}
\the\cols
\end{tabular}


but due to the \expandafter, this gives me ten columns, each containing a 10.

Is there a way to perform something like a partial expand? I'd like to expand only the \arabic{i} but of course not the &.

-
This question tex.stackexchange.com/questions/7590/… relates to your problem. I have found Herbert's \tabtoks approach very useful. – Steven B. Segletes Mar 15 '14 at 1:12
Use datatool or pgfplotstable to avoid any column number concerns etc. – percusse Mar 15 '14 at 1:18

The problem is the line:

\cols=\expandafter{\the\cols \arabic{i}}


\cols is a token register, thus \arabic{i} does not get expanded. Using an additional \expandafter and printing the counter value instead of \arabic helps:

\cols=\expandafter{\the\expandafter\cols\the\value{i}}


Complete example:

\documentclass{article}

\newtoks\cols
\newcounter{i}
\newcount\N

\begin{document}
\N=10
\cols={}
\setcounter{i}{1}
\loop
\cols=\expandafter{\the\expandafter\cols\the\value{i}}
\ifnum\value{i}<\N
\cols=\expandafter{\the\cols &}
\stepcounter{i}
\repeat
\begin{tabular}{|*{\N}{c|}}
\the\cols
\end{tabular}
\end{document}


## Expandable version

The following example uses e-TeX's \numexpr. Care is taken to get a constant \if nesting and & must not be seen too early.

\documentclass{article}

\newcount\N

\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\Ncols}{%
\Ncols@aux{1}%
}
\newcommand*{\Ncols@aux}[1]{%
\ifnum#1>\N
\expandafter\@gobble
\else
\expandafter\@firstofone
\fi
{%
\ifnum#1<2 \expandafter\@gobble\fi\Ncols@amp
#1%
\expandafter\Ncols@aux\expandafter{\the\numexpr(#1+1)}%
}%
}
\newcommand*{\Ncols@amp}{&}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\N=10
\begin{tabular}{|*{\N}{c|}}
\Ncols
\end{tabular}

\end{document}


-

Heiko's answer explained the problem with your code, how to solve it, and also how to proceed in a different style using an expandable integer loop (thanks to \numexpr).

A.Ellett's answer provides two more solutions using pgffor and pgfkeys.

DJP' answer is a method using an external tool, here Python code which is handled by the powerful Sage via sagetex.

These answers all need in one form or another some extra work, like (for the TeX ones) hiding the tabulation & in a macro, or do global definitions with \xdef, or prepare a token list register, or use various kinds of TeX conditionals.

The xintFor construct from package xinttools is an alternative (see How to iterate over a comma separated list?) which spares the trouble of this extra coding:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xinttools}
\newcommand{\N}{10}
\begin{document}
% \renewcommand{\N}{<nb of cols>}
\begin{tabular}{*{\N}c}
\xintFor* #1 in {\xintSeq {1}{\N}}\do {\xintifForFirst{}{&}#1}\\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}


The \xintifForFirst{YES}{N0} test is to insert a tabulation & only in the second and next cells of the given row (here only one row). The \xintSeq macro generates an arithmetic sequence of integers (e.g {1}{2}{3}{4}). The \xintFor* #1 in iterates over its argument (its unstarred cousin \xintFor iterates over a comma separated list), letting #1 be each item of it one after the other.

The same code as above but using rather a LaTeX counter:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xinttools}
\newcounter{N}
\begin{document}
\setcounter{N}{10}
\begin{tabular}{*{\value{N}}c}
\xintFor* #1 in {\xintSeq {1}{\value{N}}}\do {\xintifForFirst{}{&}#1}\\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}


Here is now a more elaborate example (as it uses two nested loops) which constructs multiplication tables: \numexpr is used for the multiplication of the row index by the column index.

Here is the code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xinttools}

\newcommand\MultTable [4]{%
% #1, #2 row indices
% #3, #4 column indices: we need #4-#3+2 columns
\begin{tabular}{*{\numexpr#4-#3+2\relax}c}
\hline
$\times$\xintFor* ##1 in {\xintSeq {#3}{#4}}\do{&\textbf{##1}}\\
\hline
% #2-#1+1 rows, ##1=dynamic index of each row, ##2 column index
\xintFor* ##1 in {\xintSeq {#1}{#2}}\do
{\textbf{##1}
\xintFor* ##2 in {\xintSeq {#3}{#4}}\do{&\the\numexpr ##1*##2\relax}
\\
}
\hline
\end{tabular}%
% efficiency note: one could do \edef\columnindices {\xintSeq {#3}{#4}}
% before the tabular
% and use \columnindices rather \xintSeq {#3}{#4} to avoid it being
% re-computed for each row
}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[!htbp]
\centering
\MultTable {1}{10}{1}{10}
\caption{Multiplication table}
\end{table}
\begin{table}[!htbp]
\centering
\MultTable {123}{132}{91}{98}
\caption{Multiplication table}
\end{table}
\end{document}


As we used \xintFor* inside the definition of a LaTeX user command, we needed to double the # to avoid confusion between the ##1 of the loop and the #1 being the first parameter of the command.

-

If you don't mind learning a little Python, the sagetex package can handle dynamic tables easily; after all Python is a powerful language. The documentation for sagetex is here and, in example.pdf, they construct Pascal's Triangle. Here's the code for something closer to what you asked for; the first row is 1 through N:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{sagetex}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
\begin{sagesilent}
N = 5
M = 4
output = r"\begin{tabular}{"
for i in range(0,N):
output += r"|c"
output += r"|}"
for j in range(0,M):
for i in range(0,N-1):
output += r"%d & "%((j+1)*(i+1))
output += r"%d \\"%(N*(j+1))
output += r"\end{tabular}"
\end{sagesilent}
Here's the output:\\\\
\sagestr{output}
\end{document}


With the limited amount of Python you need to learn, I'd imagine it's probably easier than programming in TeX. You need to know: for loops don't include the last value listed in the range and r is for raw string and avoids problems that might arise from having characters such as backslash in your string. Finally, %d is for inserting integers, %f for float, and %s for string. The sagesilent environment is typesetting the actual code which then gets inserted via a sagestr.

-

This can be done in a variety of ways as already suggested by the comments and other answer. Here are two solutions using pgffor and pgfkeys.

This first solution works without using keys:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgffor}
\usepackage{etoolbox}

\makeatletter
\newcommand\aeDynamicTable{\ae@dynamicTable}
\def\ae@dynamicTable[#1]#2{%%
\let\ae@table@content\relax%%
\def\ae@new@column{&}
\def\ae@row{0}%%
\foreach \x in {1,...,#2}
{%%
\xdef\ae@row{\number\numexpr\ae@row+1\relax}%%
\ifx\relax\ae@table@content
\xdef\ae@table@content{\noexpand\@arabic{\x}}%
\else
\xdef\ae@table@content{\expandonce{\ae@table@content} \noexpand\@arabic{\x}}%%
\fi
\ifnum\ae@row=#1\relax
\xdef\ae@row{0}%%
\def\ae@new@line{\\}%%
\def\ae@new@column{}%%
\else
\def\ae@new@line{}%%
\def\ae@new@column{&}%%
\fi
\ifnum\x=#2\relax
\def\ae@new@line{}%%
\def\ae@new@column{}%%
\fi
\xdef\ae@table@content{\expandonce{\ae@table@content} \expandonce{\ae@new@column} \expandonce{\ae@new@line}}%
}%%
\begin{tabular}{|*{#1}{c|}}
\ae@table@content
\end{tabular}%%
}

\makeatother

\begin{document}

\aeDynamicTable[3]{5}

\aeDynamicTable[10]{35}

\end{document}


This second example accomplishes the same task using keys:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgffor}
\usepackage{pgfkeys}
\usepackage{etoolbox}

\makeatletter
\def\ae@col@limit{}
\def\ae@max@cells{}
\pgfkeys{/ae/dynamic/table/.cd,
cols/.store in=\ae@col@limit,
cells/.store in=\ae@max@cells,
}

\newcommand\aeDynamicTable{\ae@dynamicTable}
\def\ae@dynamicTable#1{%%
\pgfkeys{/ae/dynamic/table/.cd,#1}%%
\let\ae@table@content\relax%%
\def\ae@new@column{&}
\def\ae@col{0}%%
\foreach \x in {1,...,\ae@max@cells}
{%%
\xdef\ae@col{\number\numexpr\ae@col+1\relax}%%
\ifx\relax\ae@table@content
\xdef\ae@table@content{\noexpand\@arabic{\x}}%
\else
\xdef\ae@table@content{\expandonce{\ae@table@content} \noexpand\@arabic{\x}}%%
\fi
\ifnum\ae@col=\ae@col@limit\relax
\xdef\ae@col{0}%%
\def\ae@new@line{\\}%%
\def\ae@new@column{}%%
\else
\def\ae@new@line{}%%
\def\ae@new@column{&}%%
\fi
\ifnum\x=\ae@max@cells\relax
\def\ae@new@line{}%%
\def\ae@new@column{}%%
\fi
\xdef\ae@table@content{\expandonce{\ae@table@content} \expandonce{\ae@new@column} \expandonce{\ae@new@line}}%
}%%
\begin{tabular}{|*{\ae@col@limit}{c|}}
\ae@table@content
\end{tabular}%%
}

\makeatother

\begin{document}

\aeDynamicTable{cols=3,cells=5}

\aeDynamicTable{cols=10,cells=35}

\end{document}


In either case the resulting tables are:

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