Recover TeX source from automatically generated LaTeX files

Question

Maybe the question can not be exactly understood from the title. So, to automate things a bit, instead of rewriting everything when adding different pictures and tables, code was made to add everything with a help of FOR cycles:

\usepackage{pgffor}

\def\tableinput#1#2#3#4{%
   \foreach \indexc in {#1, ..., #2} {%
      \subsection{C\indexc -look explanations}
      \foreach \indexd in {#3, ..., #4} {%
         \subsubsection{C\indexc D\indexd -look explanations}
         \rotatebox{90}{
         \input{table-July-c\indexc d\indexd.tex}
         }
      \includegraphics[scale=0.6]{plot-July-c\indexc d\indexd.eps}
     }
   }
}

Afterwards I get everything included and everything works smooth. What I want is to be able to get the generated tex file (instead of just the PDF/DVI result). I could write C/C#/whatewer program that generates me the text, but since I already have the working stuff, I was wondering is there any possibility to grab the generated text?

I would like to be able to have something like:

\subsection{C0 -look explanations}
\subsubsection{C0 D0 -look explanations}
\rotatebox{90}{
     \input{table-July-c0d0.tex}
     }
  \includegraphics[scale=0.6]{plot-July-c0d0.eps}
\subsubsection{C0 D1 -look explanations}
\rotatebox{90}{
     \input{table-July-c0d1.tex}
     }
  \includegraphics[scale=0.6]{plot-July-c0d1.eps}
\subsection{C1 -look explanations}
\subsubsection{C1 D0 -look explanations}
\rotatebox{90}{
     \input{table-July-c1d0.tex}
     }
  \includegraphics[scale=0.6]{plot-July-c1d0.eps}
\subsubsection{C1 D1 -look explanations}
\rotatebox{90}{
     \input{table-July-c1d1.tex}
     }
  \includegraphics[scale=0.6]{plot-July-c1d1.eps}

Is that possible and if yes, how?

Answer 1

While the expanded code can not be recovered, your can generate the desired code. The MWE below creates a file foobar.tex with the following lines:

\subsection{C 0-look explanations}
  \subsubsection{C0D0-look explanations}
    \rotatebox{90}{\input{table-July-c0d0.tex}}
    \includegraphics[scale=0.6]{plot-July-c0d0.eps}
  \subsubsection{C0D1-look explanations}
    \rotatebox{90}{\input{table-July-c0d1.tex}}
    \includegraphics[scale=0.6]{plot-July-c0d1.eps}
\subsection{C 1-look explanations}
  \subsubsection{C1D0-look explanations}
    \rotatebox{90}{\input{table-July-c1d0.tex}}
    \includegraphics[scale=0.6]{plot-July-c1d0.eps}
  \subsubsection{C1D1-look explanations}
    \rotatebox{90}{\input{table-July-c1d1.tex}}
    \includegraphics[scale=0.6]{plot-July-c1d1.eps}

Notes:

• I combined the following three lines into one:

   \subsubsection{C\indexc D\indexd -look explanations}
   \rotatebox{90}{
   \input{table-July-c\indexc d\indexd.tex}
  

  Otherwise they need to be rewritten as:

   \immediate\write\foobar{\rotatebox{90} }% <-- missing curly brace
   \immediate\write\foobar{\input{table-July-c\indexc d\indexd.tex}}
   \immediate\write\foobar{\Z}% <-- replaced closing curly
  

• Much thanks to David Carlisle for his help in use of \string macros.

Further Enhancements:

• A huge improvement to this would be to modify the \RedefineMacros macro so that each of the redefined macros does the \immediate\write\foobar, which would then leave the code in the foreach loop completely readable. I attempted to do this but ran into problems. Will see if I can do this enhancement later.

Code:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{pgffor}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\edef\Y{\string{}
\edef\Z{\string}}

\newcommand*{\RedefineMacros}{%
    \def\subsection{\string\subsection}%
    \def\subsubsection{\space\space\string\subsubsection}%
    \def\input{\string\input}
    \def\includegraphics{\space\space\space\space\string\includegraphics}
    \renewcommand{\rotatebox}[1]{\space\space\space\space\string\rotatebox\Y##1\Z}% 
}%
\newwrite\foobar
\newcommand{\tableinput}[4]{%
    \RedefineMacros
    \immediate\openout\foobar=foobar.tex
    \foreach \indexc in {#1, ..., #2} {%
        \immediate\write\foobar{\subsection{C \indexc -look explanations}}
        \foreach \indexd in {#3, ..., #4} {%
            \immediate\write\foobar{\subsubsection{C\indexc D\indexd -look explanations}}
            \immediate\write\foobar{\rotatebox{90}{\input{table-July-c\indexc d\indexd.tex}}}% <-- combined 3 lines
            \immediate\write\foobar{\includegraphics[scale=0.6]{plot-July-c\indexc d\indexd.eps}}
        }
    }
    \immediate\closeout\foobar
}

\begin{document}
    \tableinput{0}{1}{0}{1}
\end{document}