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As in the title.
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
% first write some file content for demo...
\begin{filecontents*}{test test.txt}
line 1 !?#\xyz
line 2
\end{filecontents*}
% what to do here? I want to read the whole content of the file into variable \result
\ExplSyntaxOn
\str_show:N \result % → the whole content of the file.
\ExplSyntaxOff
\end{document}
One option is to use \file_get:nnN. There are other options as well.
%! TEX program = pdflatex
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{filecontents*}{test test.txt}
line 1 !?#\xyz
line 2
\end{filecontents*}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\file_get:nnN {test~test.txt} {
% alternatively (although the effects the different on LuaTeX)
% \int_step_inline:nnn {0} {255} {\char_set_catcode_other:n{#1}}
\cctab_select:N \c_other_cctab
\endlinechar=10~
% ↑ this must be done after the cctab line
% because cctab changes the value of endlinechar as well
} \result
\str_set:NV \result \result
\str_show:N \result % → the whole content of the file.
\ExplSyntaxOff
\end{document}
This saves the whole content of the file into variable \result, each "new line character" in the file will be represented with a character 10.
\file_get:nnN {test~test.txt} {
Use the command, as explained. Note that since this is expl3 environment the space need to be written as ~.
\cctab_select:N \c_other_cctab
Set the catcode. On XeTeX it's impractical to set for all the characters in 0..1114111, so there exists corner cases where one of the characters in the file has catcode 1/2 and make the content unbalanced thus cause an error.
Note that this command, in addition to setting the catcode table as its name suggests, it also sets the endlinechar (in this catcode table endlinechar = -1), as such we want char with charcode 10 to separate the lines we need to explicitly set it below.
\endlinechar=10~
Set endlinechar to 10, so each new line character in the file will be represented with a character 10 to be precise, a token with char code 10 and catcode 12 in the resulting string.
This is expl3 environment it's good practice to specify the space explicitly to terminate the number (or use \scan_stop: / \relax but I don't like that name it's longer. There's also \int_set:Nn \endlinechar {10} but that... relies on implementation details...?)
} \result
\str_set:NV \result \result
Detokenize the result. This step is important, because in order to get the result as a string, tokens with charcode 32 (space) should have catcode 10 (space), while it would have catcode 12 (other) as above.
\readline: File copy without expansion, Read arbitrary lines from file
\str_show:n should be \str_show:N. 3) I get “Undefined control sequence” for \pretty:V. I can fix these if you want...
I propose to use \ior_str_map_variable:NNn:
\begin{filecontents*}{test.txt}
line 1 !?#\xyz
line 2
\end{filecontents*}
\documentclass{article}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\ior_new:N \g__my_ior
\str_new:N \l__my_str
\cs_new_protected:Npn \my_verb_read_into:Nn #1#2
{
\str_clear_new:N #1 % define #1 if necessary, then clear it
\ior_open:Nn \g__my_ior {#2}
\ior_str_map_variable:NNn \g__my_ior \l__my_str
{
% Precaution in case the LINE FEED char ^^J might be active
\str_put_right:Nx #1 { \l__my_str \char_generate:nn { 10 } { 12 } }
}
\ior_close:N \g__my_ior
}
\NewDocumentCommand \verbReadInto { m m }
{
\my_verb_read_into:Nn #1 {#2}
}
\ExplSyntaxOff
\begin{document}
\verbReadInto{\result}{test.txt}
\show\result
\end{document}
which shows:
\result=macro:
->line 1 !?#\xyz
line 2
.
All lines, including the last one, are terminated by a LINE FEED character (10) with catcode 12.
Of course, one could use \g_tmpa_ior and \l_tmpa_str in \my_verb_read_into:Nn (and spare the declarations of \g__my_ior and \l__my_str), but be careful not to shoot yourself in the foot when the code grows with new functions that use the same scratch variables.
Actually, if it were not for space reasons in this tight space for the code block, I'd have included most of the function name in the names of these two variables, for the same reason.
\str_put_right:Nx? I would hope it is cheap enough, but otherwise you could append each line separately to a seq variable (I hope this is linear but haven't checked).
\s__seq\__seq_item:n{1}\__seq_item:n{2}\__seq_item:n{3} so each change need to change the whole thing, quadratic as well.
Jun 10, 2022 at 14:36
\seq_put_right:Nn and I believe \str_put_right:Nn has the same complexity (time and memory) as \seq_put_right:Nn. That said, whether it is quadratic depends on the complexity of expanding a macro in function of, say, the number of tokens inside the macro (judging from the code of \tl_put_right:Nn). I don't know how it is done in TeX impementations, just wondering if you are too pessimistic.
l3candidates has \tl_build_put_right:Nx and friends that might be relevant here (“\tl_build_begin:N Clears the ⟨tl var⟩ and sets it up to support other \tl_build_... functions, which allow accumulating large numbers of tokens piece by piece much more efficiently than standard l3tl functions”).
expl3. The question didn't mention that computational complexity was a concern, but its “string variable” part, at least, is clear. In case it is not for you, see “The l3str package: Strings” in interface3.pdf.\stringprimitive is something different, so misunderstanding is very probable.