Dynamic macro definition in a `foreach` loop

Question

I created a command to dynamically define vector macros:

\newcommand{\makevec}[1]{\expandafter\def\csname #1\endcsname{\vec{#1}}}

which works as I expected. But then I tried to modify this command to accept a comma separated list of symbols using the \foreach command defined in the pgffor package:

\newcommand{\makevec}[1]{
  \foreach \name in {#1} {
    \expandafter\def\csname \name\endcsname{\vec{\name}}
  }
}

The command compiles without errors, but simply fails to define the correct macros. After a bit of Googling I ran across some questions somewhat similar to mine that suggested the issue may have to do with the scope, so I tried both:

\newcommand{\makevec}[1]{
  \foreach \name in {#1} {
    \global\expandafter\def\csname \name\endcsname{\vec{\name}}
  }
}

and

\newcommand{\makevec}[1]{
  \foreach \name in {#1} {
    \expandafter\xdef\csname \name\endcsname{\vec{\name}}
  }
}

The first of these yields the same results as my initial solution, while the second produces the errors Argument of \reserved@a has an extra } and Paragraph ended before \reserved@a was complete. Any help is appreciated.

UPDATE: Here's a minimal document:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{pgffor}

\newcommand{\makevec}[1]{
  \foreach \name in {#1} {
    \global\expandafter\def\csname \name\endcsname{\textbf{\name}}
  }
}

\makevec{v}

\begin{document}

$\v$

\end{document}

This raises an undefined control sequence error at the invocation of \v and compiles to a blank document.

Answer 1

You're basically doing

\gdef\v{\textbf{\name}}

which of course will raise an error because \name is generally undefined and, even if it were, it would most likely not be “v”. If you do

\makevec{v,w}

you'd define both \v and \w to expand to \name.

You need \xdef, but \textbf should be protected with \noexpand and, for safety, only expand once \name:

\newcommand{\makevec}[1]{%
  \foreach \name in {#1} {%
    \expandafter\xdef\csname\name\endcsname{\noexpand\textbf{\unexpanded\expandafter{\name}}}%
  }%
}

Beware, though, that redefining commands this way is quite dangerous. After \makevec{v} you'll not be able to have an author named Čech in your bibliography, because you have redefined \v to means something else than expected.