128

I need to output the below text but since \ is a special character, I cannot:

[RegularExpression(@"\d+")]

Also sometimes I need use dollar sign $ as well but it seems to be a special char, too.

What is the way to escape those in LaTeX?

UPDATE:

I used \verb as suggested but I am unable to run commands inside it. Also, in the output the font and the opacity of the text is different than the default one:

\verb|[RegularExpression(\newline @"\d+")]|
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197

The following ten characters have special meanings in (La)TeX:

& % $ # _ { } ~ ^ \

Outside \verb, the first seven of them can be typeset by prepending a backslash; for the other three, use the macros \textasciitilde, \textasciicircum, and \textbackslash.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\& \% \$ \# \_ \{ \}

\textasciitilde

\textasciicircum

\textbackslash

\end{document}

enter image description here

Note that the seven "single non-letter" macros don't gobble the space following them. For the last three that do gobble up the space after them you can try one of these methods to add space.

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  • In pdfLaTeX I have defined a new command \textampersand by using \newcommand*{\textampersand}[0]{\&} or \renewcommand*{\textampersand}[0]{\&}. In XeLaTeX it is already available, I think. – matth May 9 '12 at 17:35
  • In terms of preventing characters gobbling the space after them, you can use \usepackage{xspace} and then \xspace directly after the character that might gobble the space to prevent this. – Savara Dec 1 '15 at 12:24
  • 1
    It's worth adding that [ (and ]) also have a special meaning in certain circumstances. For example \item [a]bc will not print [a]bc (as it will be considered as an option passed to the command). – kebs Nov 11 '18 at 8:00
27

Usually text like that is typeset in typewriter type and so there's a slick way to arrange it

\verb|[RegularExpression(@"\d+")]|

After \verb should go a character that's not used in the text to print "verbatim" and the same character should follow the text.

This command has a drawback: it can't be used in the argument of other commands.

There's a second "solution" which can come handy if it's needed a limited number of times:

\texttt{[RegularExpression(@"\string\d+")]}

where commands inside the argument to \texttt are allowed. It's not even necessary to use \texttt:

\textsf{[RegularExpression(@"\string\d+")]}

will work as well (when T1 font encoding is active) and will print the string in sans serif type.

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  • 2
    first solution is nice but I cannot use commands inside it. second solution breaks my entire document. Does every single little thing have to be so hard in LaTeX :) – tugberk Nov 12 '11 at 16:22
  • Would you please modify your question and show some more cases? – egreg Nov 12 '11 at 16:27
  • sure, see it. I updated! – tugberk Nov 12 '11 at 16:31
  • 2
    @egreg: in your definition of \pseudoverb, you've got [1} instead of [1]. And a drawback you don't mention of \detokenize is that it inserts spaces after macros names with more than one character (not sure if it's relevant for regular expressions). – Philippe Goutet Nov 12 '11 at 22:11
  • @PhilippeGoutet Yes, you're right; I've deleted that part – egreg Nov 12 '11 at 22:14
12

I needed a way to escape all special characters and I found this Perl function:

sub latex_escape {
  my $paragraph = shift;

  # Replace a \ with $\backslash$
  # This is made more complicated because the dollars will be escaped
  # by the subsequent replacement. Easiest to add \backslash
  # now and then add the dollars
  $paragraph =~ s/\\/\\backslash/g;

  # Must be done after escape of \ since this command adds latex escapes
  # Replace characters that can be escaped
  $paragraph =~ s/([\$\#&%_{}])/\\$1/g;

  # Replace ^ characters with \^{} so that $^F works okay
  $paragraph =~ s/(\^)/\\$1\{\}/g;

  # Replace tilde (~) with \texttt{\~{}}
  $paragraph =~ s/~/\\texttt\{\\~\{\}\}/g;

  # Now add the dollars around each \backslash
  $paragraph =~ s/(\\backslash)/\$$1\$/g;
  return $paragraph;
}

For example it will convert this:

& % $ # _ { } ~ ^ \ \today

into this:

\& \% \$ \# \_ \{  \} \texttt{\~{}} \^{} $\backslash$ $\backslash$today
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