mjhjmtu

I am trying to create a template sort of LaTeX document for myself where I can set a number near the beginning (like a variable) and later in the document there shall be a table with as many rows as that number. Also, in the first column there shall be an increasing list of numbers. So if I set the 'variable' to 5, I would get a table with numbers from 1 to 5 in the first column.

I have followed this professional's answer to a similar question to create this table using tokens. My problem is that I can't get the numbers in my first column like I desire. Here is an MWE

documentclassarticle

defnumberoflines10

newcounteri
setcounteri0
newtokstabtoks
newcommand*addtabtoks[1]tabtoksexpandafterthetabtoks#1
newcommand*resettabtokstabtoks
newcommand*printtabtoksthetabtoks

begindocument

resettabtoks
loopifnumthei<numberoflines
 addtabtoksthei & \ hline
 stepcounteri
repeat

begintabular
 hline
 number & empty \
 hline
 printtabtoks
endtabular

enddocument

yes, I know vertical lines are ugly; this is a special use case, not for professional typesetting, please ignore

Output:

Is there some fix to get 1-10 instead of 10 everywhere?

Thanks in advance!

The main problem is that you aren't expanding thei, so the token register will contain

thei & \ hline
thei & \ hline
thei & \ hline
thei & \ hline
thei & \ hline
thei & \ hline
thei & \ hline
thei & \ hline
thei & \ hline

However, the idea of doing

expandafteraddtabtoksexpandafterthei & \ hline

doesn't work, because the first level expansion of thei is arabici; a further expansion gives numberc@i and a third expansion would be needed, leading to a whopping 14 repetitions of expandafter. Not ideal.

The simplest trick is to force expansion all the way with

expandafteraddtabtoksexpandafterromannumeral-`Qthei & \ hline

Also stepcounteri should be moved before this instruction.

documentclassarticle

defnumberoflines10

newcounteri
setcounteri0
newtokstabtoks
newcommand*addtabtoks[1]tabtoksexpandafterthetabtoks#1
newcommand*resettabtokstabtoks
newcommand*printtabtoksthetabtoks

begindocument

resettabtoks
loopifnumthei<numberoflines
 stepcounteri
 expandafteraddtabtoksexpandafterromannumeral-`Qthei & \ hline
repeat
showthetabtoks

begintabular
 hline
 number & empty \
 hline
 printtabtoks
endtabular

enddocument

You may find the following solution better. Any number of rows can be specified at runtime.

documentclassarticle
usepackagexparse

ExplSyntaxOn
NewDocumentCommandmakerowsm
 
 int_step_function:nN #1 __bertalanp_mr_row:n
 
cs_new:Nn __bertalanp_mr_row:n #1 & \ hline 
ExplSyntaxOff

begindocument

begintabular
 hline
 number & empty \
 hline
 makerows10
endtabular

enddocument

You need some more expansion. As it is only the macro thei is stored and it will be executed when typesetting it (i.e. at the end when i=10).

documentclassarticle

defnumberoflines10

newcounteri
setcounteri0
newtokstabtoks
newcommand*addtabtoks[1]tabtoksexpandafterthetabtoks#1
newcommand*resettabtokstabtoks
newcommand*printtabtoksthetabtoks

begindocument

resettabtoks
loopifnumvaluei<numberoflines
 expandafteraddtabtoksexpandafterexpandedarabici & \ hline
 stepcounteri
repeat

begintabular
 hline
 number & empty \
 hline
 printtabtoks
endtabular

enddocument

Edit: expanded is currently LuaLaTeX-only. Here's a more general version:

documentclassarticle

defnumberoflines10

newcounteri
setcounteri0
newtokstabtoks
newcommand*addtabtoks[1]tabtoksexpandafterthetabtoks#1
newcommand*resettabtokstabtoks
newcommand*printtabtoksthetabtoks

begindocument

resettabtoks
loopifnumvaluei<numberoflines
 edeftmpithei
 expandafteraddtabtoksexpandaftertmpi & \ hline
 stepcounteri
repeat

begintabular
 hline
 number & empty \
 hline
 printtabtoks
endtabular

enddocument