Remove formatting

Question

I currently use latex newcommand to store (and format) "variables", like so:

\newcommand{\someVariable}{\emph{value}}

I do this for key words that I want to be formatted a certain way every time they appear, by typing \someVariable{}

Is there a way to remove the formatting from \someVariable{} for certain times that I do NOT want any special formatting, something like \removeFormatting{\someVariable{}}.

Of course I could just manually type the text value, but I prefer to keep it in a command so that I can change all occurrences of it easily.

Answer 1

You can use a higher level definition:

\usepackage{xparse}
\NewDocumentCommand{\definevariable}{mmm}{%
  \NewDocumentCommand{#1}{s}{\IfBooleanTF{##1}{#3}{#2{#3}}}%
}

\definevariable{\someVariable}{\emph}{value}
\definevariable{\otherVariable}{\quotedtextbf}{x}

\newcommand{\quotedtextbf}[1]{``\textbf{#1}''}

Now calling \someVariable will print "value" applying \emph, while \someVariable* will print value without special formatting. Similarly, \otherVariable will print “x”, while \otherVariable* will print a simple x. Note how we can apply additional formatting such as quotes and boldface.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xparse}
\NewDocumentCommand{\definevariable}{mmm}{%
  \NewDocumentCommand{#1}{s}{\IfBooleanTF{##1}{#3}{#2{#3}}}%
}

\definevariable{\someVariable}{\emph}{value}
\definevariable{\otherVariable}{\quotedtextbf}{x}

\newcommand{\quotedtextbf}[1]{``\textbf{#1}''}

\begin{document}
\someVariable{} \otherVariable{}

\someVariable* \otherVariable*

\end{document}

will print

value “x”
value x

Answer 2

You can temporarily set the formatting command(s) to \relax. If you do this within a group, they will automatically be restored afterwards.

\documentclass{article}
\newcommand\goat{\emph{goat}}
\newcommand\noemph[1]{\bgroup\let\emph\relax#1\egroup}
\begin{document}
\goat
\noemph{\goat}
\goat
\end{document}

Answer 3

You could define a "conditional emphasis" macro -- such as the macro \emphvar in the MWE below -- as follows:

• if it's given just one argument, set off in curly braces, it'll emphasize that argument; and
• if it's also given an optional argument, set off in square brackets with a value of "0" (zero), it will not emphasize its main argument.

With the code given in the MWE below, you could specify \emphvar{Value} to italicize the string "Value", whereas \emphvar[0]{Value} would selectively disable the emphasizing action of the macro. The \emphvar macro can thus also be used to affect the appearance of keywords in your document's preamble.

\documentclass{article}
\newcommand{\emphvar}[2][]{%    % macro has two args; first arg is optional
   \ifx#10{#2}\else\emph{#2}\fi}
\newcommand{\Keywordi}{\emphvar{FirstKeyword}}
\newcommand{\Keywordii}{\emphvar[0]{SecondKeyword}}
\begin{document}
\emphvar{Value}    % without optional arg.: emphasize macro's argument
\emphvar[0]{Value} % with intended optional arg., viz., "0": no emphasis
\emphvar[x]{Value} % with any other value for the optional arg., the macro's
                   % behavior is the same as if no optional argument were present

\Keywordi{} \Keywordii
\end{document}