4

Context: I want to store values in the aux file to use them earlier in the file on the next run, rather than creating my own solution I want to use labels (as suggest by this answer).

Problem: Whenever a label is defined it creates something like this 

\newlabel{customLabel}{{MyValue}{24}{}{Doc-Start}{}}

I want to be able to extract those values. \ref does not work as its output is not just the value but some complex latex string.

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  • 1
    \getrefnumber{customLabel} from package refcount -- it is expandable, \ref isn't. – user31729 Mar 8 '16 at 14:48
  • That worked for my current problem, is there any reason why you will not post this as an answer? – Strategy Thinker Mar 8 '16 at 14:55
  • I was writing an answer ;-) – user31729 Mar 8 '16 at 14:58
  • I've added an answer, with another way of writing the label -- this is not shown by you, so I assumed some approach – user31729 Mar 8 '16 at 15:10
6

With refcount and \getrefnumber it is possible to extract label values in an expandable way.

\getrefnumber{foo} will provide whatever is stored as label value, this might be a number but it is not restricted to numbers. (It can be 'anything')

The label value must be stored as second argument of \newlabel. 

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{refcount}
\usepackage{hyperref}

\newcounter{mylabelcounter}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\labelText}[2]{%
  \refstepcounter{mylabelcounter}%
  \immediate\write\@auxout{%
    \string\newlabel{#1}{{#2}{\thepage}{{\unexpanded{#2}}}{mylabelcounter.\number\value{mylabelcounter}}{}}
  }%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\labelText{customLabel}{100}

\labelText{otherLabel}{24}

\ifnum\getrefnumber{otherLabel} < 25 
Hooray!!!
\else
Sorry!!!!
\fi


\ifnum\getrefnumber{customLabel} < 25 
Hooray!!!
\else
Sorry!!!!
\fi

\end{document}

enter image description here

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  • I used \def\@currentlabel{#2}\label{#1} to save the label but the net result is the same. – Strategy Thinker Mar 8 '16 at 17:09

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