Create command that displays input exactly

Question

I want to create a command whose argument is used within a \label{} command. I also want a boolean switch that turns on/off the display of this label for editing purposes. Here is pseudo-code for what I'd like to do:

\newcommand{\foo}[1]{%
  \refstepcounter{foocount}\label{#1}%
  ... do other things ... %
  \ifthenelse{\boolean{showlabel}}%
  {DISPLAY #1}%
  {}%
  }

The problem is in the DISPLAY #1 part. I want to display the label no matter what the label contains. For instance, many of my labels have the form "ex:function_continuous_everywhere" but the underscores causes math-mode errors. Using variations of \verbatim has its own set of issues.

Is there a slick way of doing this? I know I could change all my labels, but I'd rather not.

Answer 1

You can use \texttt{\detokenize{#1}} for the DISPLAY #1 part. This will convert the argument into text (e.g. the _ are turned into normal characters and are no longer math shift sequences) and typesets it in teletyper font.

Note that \detokenize is an e-TeX primitive, so very old or outdated LaTeX distributions won't have it.