How to make a float that is not labelled 'Figure' but 'Listing'

Question

I would to include my listings as floats, pretty much as Figures, but I don't want to call them Figures. I want to call them listings. How can I do that?

Answer 1

There are two packages that let you format your listings and are able to let them float.

• listings
• minted

Here are two simple examples.

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{listings}

\lstset{
  basicstyle=\small\ttfamily,
  frame=single
}
\begin{document}
  \begin{lstlisting}[
    gobble=4,
    float,
    caption={Dummy Listing},
    label={lst:dummy}
  ]
    \documentclass{scrartcl}

    \begin{document}
      Hello World!
    \end{document}
  \end{lstlisting}
\end{document}

---

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{minted}

\begin{document}
  \begin{listing}[!ht]
    \begin{minted}[
      frame=single,
      gobble=6
    ]{latex}
      \documentclass{scrartcl}

      \begin{document}
        Hello World!
      \end{document}
    \end{minted}
    \caption{Dummy listing}
    \label{mnt:dummy}
  \end{listing}
\end{document}

The respective manuals have more details about customization of your listings.

Answer 2

It would be possible to re-purpose the figure environment and associated macros, but it may make the code harder to read. For example,

\begin{figure}[..]
  % <contents>
  \caption[..]{...}
\end{figure}

would then serve the (possibly) dual purpose of posting a listing or a figure. Additionally, what should be contained within \listoffigures?

The float package allows for the easy definition of new floats. Here's a minimal example declaring a new float listing, as well as the appropriate \listoflistings command to display a "List of Listings":

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{float}% http://ctan.org/pkg/float
% Create new "listing" float
\newfloat{listing}{tbhp}{lst}%[section]
\floatname{listing}{Listing}
\newcommand{\listoflistings}{\listof{listing}{List of Listings}}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\listoffigures
\listoflistings
\begin{figure}
  \centering\rule{150pt}{100pt}
  \caption{This is a figure}
\end{figure}
\begin{listing}
  \begin{verbatim}
Here is some code.
  \end{verbatim}
  \caption{This is a listing}
\end{listing}
\end{document}
​

For more information on the user interface, consult the float package documentation.