Equivalent of \show to display the LaTeX code in the document

Question

I am looking for a command similar to show, but want the output in the document itself. All the examples I have found produce the output in the terminal, not the document.

So, I want to replace the use of \show with an appropriate macro in the following:

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand*{\MyFrac}{\ensuremath{\frac{\pi}{4}}}

\begin{document}
The macro \textbackslash MyFrac is set to \show\MyFrac.
\end{document}

and the output I want produced is

The macro \MyFrac is set to \ensuremath{\frac{\pi}{4}}

I could probably use the verbatim package, but I think that would require me to change the definition at two places if it was to be updated. I want to be able to define the macro in one place and be able use it as needed, but also to be able to display the LaTeX code associated with it.

Answer 1

To a zeroth approximation, you could use \meaning:

The macro \textbackslash MyFrac is set to {\ttfamily\meaning\MyFrac}

yields

The macro \MyFrac is set to macro:->\ensuremath {\frac {\pi }{4}}.

If you know you only call it on macros anyway, you can probably extend it to strip the macro:-> bit (which will also list the parameters etc) like so, using a LaTeX kernel command:

\makeatletter
\newcommand\meaningbody[1]{%
  {\ttfamily
    \expandafter\strip@prefix\meaning#1}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
The macro \textbackslash MyFrac is set to \meaningbody\MyFrac.
\end{document}

Answer 2

You can also avoid \textbackslash with

\usepackage{shortvrb}
\AtBeginDocument{\MakeShortVerb{\|}} 

and now you can write |\MyFrac|. It's possible to make another choice for the delimiter's character