# Character substitution: combine \llap{(} and \llap{-} to \llap{(-}

This is a follow up to question siunitx: specifying custom command as input-symbol . The idea is that (,) and - are wrapped into \llap or \rlap so that they do not take any space when a table is set via siunitx.

The problem is that it does not work when I have (- in one column: because it is substituted with \llap{(}\llap{-}, causing the left bracket and the minus to be overlapping. Obviously this would need to become \llap{(-}. But I don't know how to achieve this in the current framework developed by David Carlisle as shown in the MWE below.

\documentclass[11pt]{scrartcl}

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenx}

\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[euler-digits]{eulervm}

\newcommand{\sym}[1]{\rlap{#1}}

\usepackage{siunitx}
\sisetup{
detect-mode,
group-digits            = false,
input-symbols           = ( ) [ ] - +,
table-align-text-post   = false,
input-signs             = ,
}

% Character substitution that prints brackets and the minus symbol in text mode. Thanks to David Carlisle
\def\yyy{%
\bgroup\uccode\~\expandafter\string-%
\uppercase{\egroup\edef~{\noexpand\text{\llap{\textendash}\relax}}}%
\mathcode\expandafter\string-"8000 }

\def\xxxl#1{%
\bgroup\uccode\~\expandafter\string#1%
\uppercase{\egroup\edef~{\noexpand\text{\noexpand\llap{\string#1}}}}%
\mathcode\expandafter\string#1"8000 }

\def\xxxr#1{%
\bgroup\uccode\~\expandafter\string#1%
\uppercase{\egroup\edef~{\noexpand\text{\noexpand\rlap{\string#1}}}}%
\mathcode\expandafter\string#1"8000 }

\def\textsymbols{\xxxl[\xxxr]\xxxl(\xxxr)\yyy}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}\centering
\textsymbols
\begin{tabular}{l*{3}{S[table-format=1.2,table-column-width=20mm]}}
Variable 1 & 1.85\sym{***} & 0.92\sym{***} & 1.11\sym{***} \\
& (-0.34)       & (0.24)        & (0.14)        \\
Variable 2 & 0.07\sym{***} & 0.07\sym{***} & 0.07\sym{***} \\
& (-0.01)       & (0.02)        & (0.01)        \\
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}


-

You can make ( lookahead and handle a following -

(again with corrected code and image)

\documentclass[11pt]{scrartcl}

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenx}

\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[euler-digits]{eulervm}

\newcommand{\sym}[1]{\rlap{#1}}

\usepackage{siunitx}
\sisetup{
detect-mode,
group-digits            = false,
input-symbols           = ( ) [ ] - +,
table-align-text-post   = false,
input-signs             = ,
}

% Character substitution that prints brackets and the minus symbol in text mode. Thanks to David Carlisle

\def\yyy{%
\bgroup\uccode\~\expandafter\string-%
\uppercase{\egroup\edef~{\noexpand\text{\llap{\textendash}\relax}}}%
\mathcode\expandafter\string-"8000 }

\makeatletter

\def\xxxl#1{%
\bgroup\uccode\~\expandafter\string#1%
\uppercase{\egroup\edef~##1{##1\edef\noexpand\thisxxx{\string#1}\futurelet\noexpand\tmp\noexpand\zzz}}%
\mathcode\expandafter\string#1"8000 }

\def\zzzx#1#2{\def\tmp{#2}%
\ifx\tmp\zzzm
\text{\llap{\thisxxx$\mathchar"2200$}}%
\else
#1{#2}%
\fi}

\def\zzzm{-}
\def\zzz{\ifx\tmp\ensuremath
\expandafter\zzzx
\else
\text{\llap{\thisxxx}}%
\fi}

%\noexpand\@ifnextchar\noexpand-\noexpand\xxxlm{\noexpand\text{\noexpand\llap{\string#1}
\makeatother

\def\xxxr#1{%
\bgroup\uccode\~\expandafter\string#1%
\uppercase{\egroup\edef~{\noexpand\text{\noexpand\rlap{\string#1}}}}%
\mathcode\expandafter\string#1"8000 }

\def\textsymbols{\xxxl[\xxxr]\xxxl(\xxxr)\yyy}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}\centering
\textsymbols
\begin{tabular}{l*{3}{S[table-format=1.2,table-column-width=20mm]}}
Variable 1 & 1.85\sym{***} & 0.92\sym{***} & 1.11\sym{***} \\
& (-0.34)       & (0.24)        & (0.14)        \\
Variable 2 & 0.07\sym{***} & 0.07\sym{***} & 0.07\sym{***} \\
& (-0.01)       & (0.02)        & (0.01)        \\
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

-
Brilliant, that works! Two points: Could you elaborate a bit on what the code does? I get lost from futureletonwards. And within my framework I don't use the mathminus because that's the one from Eulermath. I used textendash here for simplification, but normally I use textminus from textcomp (works fine with your solution). –  Jörg Nov 19 '12 at 17:23
maybe later :-) –  David Carlisle Nov 19 '12 at 17:28
@DavidCarlisle I know you only said 'maybe' but you must admit that it is 'later'... I was trying to understand your code in relation to tex.stackexchange.com/questions/167266/…. I can't get your solution here to work there anyway, but I was initially interested in why you'd used a different solution for left and right (whereas the OP there is trying a symmetrical solution). –  cfr Mar 23 at 19:07
@cfr the question here (as far as I recall thinking it about at the time) was specifically about (- so I only handled that case not ) –  David Carlisle Mar 23 at 19:20
Ah, OK. That actually makes a lot more sense of what you were doing. [Not that I understand it but I can sort of get the general idea.] Thanks. –  cfr Mar 23 at 19:40