Overlays and verbatim

Another weird LaTeX problem. I have a piece of code on my slide and the result it gives. I want to change the code slightly and visualize the change in the result. Normally in LaTeX beamer slides, I would use overlays like this:

Query:
\begin{verbatim}
some code
\alt<2>{slightly changed code on slide 2}{original code on slide 1}
some more code
\end{verbatim}

Result:
this item is the same in both
\visible<1>{this one is only there for the original code}
\visible<2>{this one is only there for the changed code}

So far, so good. The code is in a verbatim environment, so I have cannot put the overlay around the line I want to change, but that’s fine, let’s make it an alternative around the whole verbatim part. But, unfortunately, the problem is that you cannot put a verbatim environment inside of overlays (learn why). So you have to hack it. This is the code I want, the line with FILTER is the one I only want to have on the second slide:

\begin{verbatim}
SELECT ?book ?author ?releasedate
WHERE {
   ?book dbo:author ?author .
   {
      ?book dbp:releaseDate ?releasedate . 
   } UNION {
      ?book dbp:pubDate ?releasedate . 
   }
   FILTER (?releasedate > 1950)
}
\end{verbatim}

Like in my post on using verbatim inside of verbatim, I have to end the verbatim environment prematurely, skip back over the space and then I can include the overlay inside of verb.

\begin{verbatim}
SELECT ?book ?author ?releasedate
WHERE {
   ?book dbo:author ?author .
   {
      ?book dbp:releaseDate ?releasedate . 
   } UNION {
      ?book dbp:pubDate ?releasedate . 
   }
\end{verbatim}
\vspace{-0.5\baselineskip}
\verb|  |\visible<2>{\texttt{FILTER (?releasedate > 1950 )}}\\
\verb|}|
\\

Not the most elegant way, but it works…

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About swk

I am a software developr, data scientist, computational linguist, teacher of computer science and above all a huge fan of LaTeX. I use LaTeX for everything, including things you never wanted to do with LaTeX. My latest love is lilypond, aka LaTeX for music. I'll post at irregular intervals about cool stuff, stupid hacks and annoying settings I want to remember for the future.