Otdfbt

I want to use a common index to loop over two separate comma-separated lists at once, one which is a list of abbreviations and one a list of names. I want to use the abbreviations to import charts as pdfs, and the names to label them.

This is what I have so far:

documentclass[12pt]article
usepackagetikz
usepackagegraphicx

defnamelist"New York", "Illinois","Texas"
defabrevlistNY,IL,TX

begindocument

foreach x in abrevlist %
 newpage
 section*x % <-- I want to use the state name here

 beginfigure[h!]
 includegraphics[width=.5textwidth]../charts/summary/x _compare.pdf
 captionx % <-- I want to use the state name here
 endfigure


enddocument

This imports the figures as I want, but does nothing with the state names. I would like to replace the section and captions with, for example, "New York" in place of "NYC".

Obviously, one could create an index i and loop over that to index the abbreviation or name as necessary. But I can't make that work. Any suggestions? Thanks!

If you do not need both lists elsewhere, you can just combine them in a single list:

documentclass[12pt]article
%usepackagetikz
usepackagepgffor
usepackagegraphicx

defnamelistNew York/NY,Illinois/IL,Texas/TX


begindocument

foreach x/y in namelist %
 newpage
 section*x % <-- I want to use the state name here

 beginfigure[h!]
 % includegraphics[width=.5textwidth]../charts/summary/x _compare.pdf
 texttt../charts/summary/y-compare.pdf
 captionx % <-- I want to use the state name here 
 endfigure

 
enddocument

(The texttt part shamelessly copied from @egreg)

It is not necessary to load the whole tikz, pgffor is enough for this.

documentclass[12pt]article
usepackagetikz

defnamelist"New York", "Illinois","Texas"
defabrevlistNY,IL,TX

begindocument

foreach X [count=Y starting from 0] in abrevlist %
 newpagepgfmathsetmacromystatenamelist[Y]
 section*mystate % <-- I want to use the state name here

 beginfigure[h!]
 %includegraphics[width=.5textwidth]../charts/summary/X _compare.pdf
 captionX % <-- I want to use the state name here
 endfigure


enddocument

Here's my proposal.

documentclassarticle
usepackagexparse

ExplSyntaxOn
NewDocumentCommandmaketwoprongedlistm m
 
 prop_new:c g_squipbar_list_#1_plist 
 seq_new:c g_squipbar_list_#1_seq 
 clist_map_inline:nn #2 
 
 __squipbar_list_entry:nnn #1 ##1
 
 

cs_new_protected:Nn __squipbar_list_entry:nnn
 
 seq_gput_right:cn g_squipbar_list_#1_seq #2 
 prop_gput:cnn g_squipbar_list_#1_plist short@#2 #2 
 prop_gput:cnn g_squipbar_list_#1_plist long@#2 #3 
 

NewDocumentCommandusetwoprongedlistm +m
 
 cs_set_protected:Nn __squipbar_list_entry:nn #2 
 seq_map_inline:cn g_squipbar_list_#1_seq 
 
 __squipbar_list_entry:nn
 prop_item:cn g_squipbar_list_#1_plist short@##1 
 prop_item:cn g_squipbar_list_#1_plist long@##1 
 
 

ExplSyntaxOff

maketwoprongedliststates
 NYNew York,
 ILIllinois,
 TXTexas


begindocument

usetwoprongedliststates%
 newpage
 section*#2 % <-- I want to use the state name here

 beginfigure[h!]
 centering
 %includegraphics[width=.5textwidth]../charts/summary/x _compare.pdf
 texttt../charts/summary/#1-compare.pdf
 caption#2 % <-- I want to use the state name here
 endfigure


enddocument

Since I don't have your pictures, I emulated them by just printing the file name.

How does this work?

First of all, I define a list giving it a name. The items are comma separated and should consist of <abbreviation><full name>. The first part is also used for indexing and so it should consist of characters only (but this might be overcome, in case of need).

Each part is then stored as an item in a property list, indexed as short@<abbreviation> and long@<abbreviation>. Also a sequence is maintained containing the abbreviations, for later usage; the order will be that of input.

The usetwoprongedlist command has two arguments: the first is the list to be processed; the second argument is a template, just like the main argument to foreach; the difference is that #1 and #2 are used to denote the short and long versions of the current item.

A scratch function is defined and then the sequence indexing the list's items is mapped, calling the scratch function with arguments

prop_item:cn <list name> short@<current item> 

and

prop_item:cn <list name> long@<current item> 

respectively. Et voilà.