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topnush
I want to save a listings entry to be used in various places. My non-working code is:

   
```
\documentclass{beamer}  
   
 \beamertemplatenavigationsymbolsempty  
 \setbeamertemplate{frametitle}[default][center]  
 \usepackage[many]{tcolorbox}  
 \usepackage{listings}  
 \lstdefinestyle{duckstyle}{%  
     moredelim=[is][\color{red}]{|}{|},  
     mathescape=true,  
     escapechar=@,  
     basicstyle=\ttfamily,  
     columns=fullflexible  
 }  
 \lstset{style=duckstyle}  
   
   
   
 \newsavebox{\boxname}  
 \savebox{\boxname}{  
     \begin{tcolorbox}[top=0pt, left=5pt,right=5pt, colback=blue!5!white, text height=5.5cm]  
 \begin{lstlisting}[ mathescape, name=tidemark, basewidth = {.3em}]  
 test  
 \end{lstlisting}  
 \end{tcolorbox}  
 }  
   
 \newcommand{\Proc}[1]{\textsc{#1}}  
 \begin{document}  
 \begin{frame}[fragile, t]{}  
 \usebox{\boxname}  
 \end{frame}  
 \end{document}
 ```

This doesn't render. What am I doing wrong? 
Top Answer
user 3.14159
With `xsavebox` there is no problem.

```
\documentclass{beamer}  
\beamertemplatenavigationsymbolsempty  
\setbeamertemplate{frametitle}[default][center]  
\usepackage[many]{tcolorbox}  
\usepackage{listings}  
\usepackage{xsavebox}
\lstdefinestyle{duckstyle}{%  
    moredelim=[is][\color{red}]{|}{|},  
    mathescape=true,  
    escapechar=@,  
    basicstyle=\ttfamily,  
    columns=fullflexible  
}  
\lstset{style=duckstyle}  
\begin{document}  
\begin{xlrbox}{boxname}
\begin{tcolorbox}[top=0pt, left=5pt,right=5pt, colback=blue!5!white, text height=5.5cm]  
\begin{lstlisting}[ mathescape, name=tidemark, basewidth = {.3em}]  
test  
\end{lstlisting}  
\end{tcolorbox}  
\end{xlrbox}  

\begin{frame}[t]
\frametitle{Box recycling}  
\xusebox{boxname}  
\end{frame}  
\end{document}
```

![Screen Shot 2020-09-08 at 12.12.36 PM.png](/image?hash=a8830aed96b317bab19c5c8eb02f42d15e7a4a50b2d518180e869db4efead0ee)
Answer #2
samcarter
Totally different approach:

save the content of your listing into a separate file, say `code.anush` and then use it like this:

```
\documentclass{beamer}

\beamertemplatenavigationsymbolsempty  
\setbeamertemplate{frametitle}[default][center]  
\usepackage[many]{tcolorbox}  
\tcbuselibrary{listings}
\usepackage{listings}  
\usepackage{xsavebox}
\lstdefinestyle{duckstyle}{%  
    moredelim=[is][\color{red}]{|}{|},  
    mathescape=true,  
    escapechar=@,  
    basicstyle=\ttfamily,  
    columns=fullflexible  
}  
\lstset{style=duckstyle}  


\newtcbinputlisting{\mylisting}[2][]{%
  listing options={mathescape, name=tidemark, basewidth = {.3em}},
  listing only,
  listing file={#2},
  top=0pt, 
  left=5pt,
  right=5pt, 
  colback=blue!5!white, 
  text height=4.3cm,
  width=\linewidth,  
  #1
}


\begin{document} 
\begin{frame}[fragile, t]{}

\begin{columns}[onlytextwidth]
\begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
\mylisting{code.anush}
\end{column}
\pause
\begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
\setbeamertemplate{itemize item}[circle]
\addtolength{\leftmargini}{-0.2cm}
\begin{itemize}[<+->] 
\setlength\itemsep{0.7cm}
\item Some text
\end{itemize}
\end{column}
\end{columns}
\end{frame}
\end{document}
```

![Screen Shot 2020-09-09 at 11.49.46.png](/image?hash=68b5e6c55a97d0b1fba36eb974b8a20555552965a2aa459aea97269c75902a73)

The advantage is that the box where it actually belongs, so no problems with the line width etc.
Answer #3
samcarter
A workaround with the `scontents` package:

```
\documentclass{beamer}

\beamertemplatenavigationsymbolsempty
\setbeamertemplate{frametitle}[default][center]
\usepackage[many]{tcolorbox}
\usepackage{listings}
\lstdefinestyle{duckstyle}{%
    moredelim=[is][\color{red}]{|}{|},
    mathescape=true,
    escapechar=@,
    basicstyle=\ttfamily,
    columns=fullflexible
}
\lstset{style=duckstyle}

\usepackage{scontents}
\Scontents*{%
    \begin{tcolorbox}[top=0pt, left=5pt,right=5pt, colback=blue!5!white, text height=5.5cm]
\begin{lstlisting}[ mathescape, name=tidemark, basewidth = {.3em}]
stream $\langle a_1, \dots, a_m \rangle$,$a_i \in [n]$
@\Proc{Initialise}@
Choose random $h:[n] \rightarrow [n]$

@\Proc{Simple-Count}@
Set $M = h(a_1)$
For each $i \geq 2$
    if $h(a_i) < M$
	    set $M = h(a_i)$
	   
return $\hat{d} = n/M$
\end{lstlisting}
\end{tcolorbox}
}

\newcommand{\Proc}[1]{\textsc{#1}}


\begin{document}
\begin{frame}[fragile, t]{First randomised algorithm}
\getstored[1]{contents}
\end{frame}


\end{document}
```
Answer #4
Skillmon
> What am I doing wrong?

Verbatim contents don't work when the argument got tokenized once by TeX (meaning passed in as a parameter to some macro) as the category codes get fixed during that process. The LaTeX macros `\sbox` and `\savebox` do grab the contents of the box once to inject some colour-safety code before and after them. At that moment the argument gets tokenized and `listings` can't do its thing anymore.

So what could you do? Either use some LaTeX construct which would allow the verbatim material to be typeset into a box without fixed category codes (like `lrbox`, `xlrbox` of the `xsavebox` package [as pointed out by marmot](https://topanswers.xyz/tex?q=1310#a1550), the `scontents` package [as pointed out by samcarter](https://topanswers.xyz/tex?q=1310#a1549)), or you could use the TeX construct directly instead.

Since the LaTeX ways are already shown, the following shows how one would do this with TeX syntax:

```
\documentclass{beamer}  
   
\beamertemplatenavigationsymbolsempty  
\setbeamertemplate{frametitle}[default][center]  
\usepackage[many]{tcolorbox}  
\usepackage{listings}  
\lstdefinestyle{duckstyle}{%  
   moredelim=[is][\color{red}]{|}{|},  
   mathescape=true,  
   escapechar=@,  
   basicstyle=\ttfamily,  
   columns=fullflexible  
}  
\lstset{style=duckstyle}  
 
 
 
\newsavebox{\boxname}  
 
\newcommand{\Proc}[1]{\textsc{#1}}  
\begin{document}  
\setbox\boxname\hbox{%
   \begin{tcolorbox}[top=0pt, left=5pt,right=5pt, colback=blue!5!white, text height=5.5cm]  
\begin{lstlisting}[ mathescape, name=tidemark, basewidth = {.3em}]  
test  
\end{lstlisting}  
\end{tcolorbox}%
}  
\begin{frame}[fragile, t]{}  
\usebox{\boxname}  
\end{frame}  
\end{document}
```

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