Sstrhsrtj

I need to create just a specified number of sentences of dummy text (rather than a long paragraph). Can I use lipsum to do this? If not, then what can I use? The idea is to be able to create a MWE that doesn't contain a lot of distracting text in the source code, but allows me to use smaller numbers of sentences then I can get with lipsum[n].

One can defines command mylipsum

newcommand{mylipsum}{just dummy text}

MWE

documentclass{article}



newcommand{mylipsum}{just dummy text}

newcommand{Mylipsum}{mylipsum{} mylipsum}



begin{document}

mylipsum



Mylipsum

end{document}

newcountzz

loop

Hello world.

advancezz1

ifnumzz<10

repeat

writes Hello world 10 times.

With some help from xparse we can extract a rich supply of sentences from lipsum; precisely 1498, I guess they're sufficient.

documentclass{article}

usepackage{lipsum}

usepackage{xparse}



% store a big set of sentences

unpacklipsum[1-100] % it was UnpackLipsum before version 2.0



ExplSyntaxOn

% unpack lipsumexp

seq_new:N g_lipsum_sentences_seq

cs_generate_variant:Nn seq_set_split:Nnn { NnV }

seq_gset_split:NnV g_lipsum_sentences_seq {.~} lipsumexp



NewDocumentCommand{lipsumsentence}{>{SplitArgument{1}{-}}O{1-7}}

 {

  lipsumsentenceaux #1

 }

NewDocumentCommand{lipsumsentenceaux}{mm}

 {

  IfNoValueTF { #2 }

   {

    seq_item:Nn g_lipsum_sentences_seq { #1 }.~

   }

   {

    int_step_inline:nnnn { #1 } { 1 } { #2 }

     {

      seq_item:Nn g_lipsum_sentences_seq { ##1 }.~

     }

   }

 }

ExplSyntaxOff



begin{document}



section{Seven sentences}



lipsumsentence



section{Three sentences}



lipsumsentence[2-4]



section{Some single sentences}



lipsumsentence[1]



lipsumsentence[2]



lipsumsentence[3]



lipsumsentence[4]



lipsumsentence[5]



end{document}

You can use a macro for the dummy text and a loop to repeat it, taking as an argument the number of repetitions. These commands work in any variety of TeX, but I illustrate their use in a LaTeX document.

documentclass{article} 



% Define the dummy sentence, an ancient palindrome.

defsator{Sator Arepo tenet opera rotas.}



% Create a command to print the sentence repeatedly.

% Argument #1 is the number of times to repeat it.

newcountloopcounter

defdummysentences#1{%

    loopcounter = #1

    loop

        sator %

        advanceloopcounter by -1

        ifnumloopcounter > 0

    repeat%

}



begin{document}



sator



dummysentences{5}



begin{itemize}

item sator

item dummysentences{3}

item dummysentences{2}

end{itemize}



end{document}

See also my answer here: Is there a dummy package like Lipsum or Blindtext for Tables and Figures?