LaTeX::Encode(3p)

NAME
LaTeX::Encode - encode characters for LaTeX formatting

SYNOPSIS
  use LaTeX::Encode;

  $latex = latex_encode($text, %options);

VERSION
This manual page describes version 0.03 of the "LaTeX::Encode" module.

DESCRIPTION
This module provides a function to encode text that is to be formatted with LaTeX. It encodes characters that are special to LaTeX or that are represented in LaTeX by LaTeX commands.

The special characters are: "\" (command character), "{" (open group), "}" (end group), "&" (table column separator), "#" (parameter specifier), "%" (comment character), "_" (subscript), "^" (superscript), "~" (non-breakable space), "$" (mathematics mode).

Note that some of the LaTeX commands for characters are defined in the LaTeX "textcomp" package. If your text includes such characters, you will need to include the following lines in the preamble to your LaTeX document.

    \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
    \usepackage{textcomp}

The function is useful for encoding data that is interpolated into LaTeX document templates, say with "Template::Plugin::Latex" (shameless plug!).

SUBROUTINES/METHODS

"latex_encode($text, %options)"
    Encodes the specified text such that it is suitable for processing with LaTeX. The behaviour of the filter is modified by the options:

    "except"
        Lists the characters that should be excluded from encoding. By default no special characters are excluded, but it may be useful to specify "except = "\\{}"" to allow the input string to contain LaTeX commands such as "this is \\textbf{bold} text" (the doubled backslashes in the strings represent Perl escapes, and will be evaluated to single backslashes).

    "iquotes"
        If true then single or double quotes around words will be changed to LaTeX single or double quotes; double quotes around a phrase will be converted to "``" and "''" and single quotes to "`" and "'". This is sometimes called "intelligent quotes"

    "use_textcomp"
        By default the "latex_encode" filter will encode characters with the encodings provided by the "textcomp" LaTeX package (for example the Pounds Sterling symbol is encoded as "\\textsterling{}"). Setting "use_textcomp = 0" turns off these encodings. NOT YET IMPLEMENTED

EXAMPLES
The following snippet shows how data from a database can be encoded and inserted into a LaTeX table, the source of which is generated with "LaTeX::Table".

    my $sth = $dbh->prepare('select col1, col2, col3 from table where $expr');
    $sth->execute;
    while (my $href = $sth->fetchrow_hashref) {
        my @row;
        foreach my $col (qw(col1 col2 col3)) {
            push(@row, latex_encode($href->{$col}));
        }
        push @data, \@row;
    }

    my $headings = [ [ 'Col1', 'Col2', 'Col3' ] ];

    my $table = LaTeX::Table->new( { caption => 'My caption',
                                     label   => 'table:caption',
                                     type    => 'xtab',
                                     header  => $header,
                                     data    => \@data } );

    my $table_text = $table->generate_string;

Now $table_text can be interpolated into a LaTeX document template.

DIAGNOSTICS
None. You could probably break the "latex_encode" function by passing it an array reference as the options, but there are no checks for that.

CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT
Not applicable.

DEPENDENCIES
The "HTML::Entities" and "Pod::LaTeX" modules were used for building the encoding table in "LaTeX::Encode::EncodingTable", but this is not rebuilt at installation time. The "LaTeX::Driver" module is used for formatting the character encodings reference document.

INCOMPATIBILITIES
None known.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
Not all LaTeX special characters are included in the encoding tables (more may be added when I track down the definitions).

The "use_textcomp" option is not implemented.

AUTHOR
Andrew Ford <a.ford@ford-mason.co.uk>

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2007 Andrew Ford. All Rights Reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO
Template::Plugin::Latex