How can I use commands in a listlisting

Question

I have the following latex code

\begin{lstlisting}[escapechar=\%]
begin
  begin
    \alpha;
    i = 5

  ...
\end{lstlisting}

and I would like to have the \alpha be rendered as a ⍺ but it seems to still render as \alpha. How can I get it to render as a ⍺

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You can typeset maths using LaTeX code in a lstlisting environment when setting the key mathescape as true.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{listings}
\begin{document}
\begin{lstlisting}[escapechar=\%, mathescape=true]
begin
  begin
    $\alpha$;
    i = 5

  ...
\end{lstlisting}
\end{document}

There are other ways to achieve similar results. As said by @daleif in the comments, it is described in more details in the section Escaping to LaTeX of listings's documentation.