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KaTeX/docs/api.md
Ron Kok 26ed77f598 docs: Explain how to make macros persist. (#2702)
* docs: Explain how make macros persist.

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---
id: api
title: API
---
## In-browser rendering
Call `katex.render` with a TeX expression and a DOM element to render into:
```js
katex.render("c = \\pm\\sqrt{a^2 + b^2}", element, {
throwOnError: false
});
```
To avoid escaping the backslash (double backslash), you can use
[`String.raw`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/raw)
(but beware that `${`, `\u` and `\x` may still need escaping):
```js
katex.render(String.raw`c = \pm\sqrt{a^2 + b^2}`, element, {
throwOnError: false
});
```
## Server-side rendering or rendering to a string
To generate HTML on the server or to generate an HTML string of the rendered math, you can use `katex.renderToString`:
```js
var html = katex.renderToString("c = \\pm\\sqrt{a^2 + b^2}", {
throwOnError: false
});
// '<span class="katex">...</span>'
```
## Handling errors
The examples above use the `throwOnError: false` option, which renders invalid
inputs as the TeX source code in red (by default), with the error message as
hover text. Without this option, invalid LaTeX will cause a
`katex.ParseError` exception to be thrown. See [handling errors](error.md).
## Configuring KaTeX
The last argument to `katex.render` and `katex.renderToString` can contain
[a variety of rendering options](options.md).
## Persistent Macros
KaTeXs [macro documentation](supported.html#gdef) tells the author that `\gdef` will create a macro that persists between KaTeX elements. In order to enable that persistence, you must create one shared `macros` object that you pass into every call to `katex.render` or `katex.renderToString`. (Do not create a fresh `macros` object for each call.)
For example, suppose that you have an array `mathElements` of DOM elements that contain math. Then you could write this code:
```js
const macros = {};
for (let element of mathElements) {
katex.render(element.textContent, element, {
throwOnError: false,
macros
};
}
```
Notice that you create the `macros` object outside the loop. If an author uses `\gdef`, KaTeX will insert that macro definition into the `macros` object and since `macros` continues to exist between calls to `katex.render`, `\gdef` macros will persist between `mathElements`.
### Security of Persistent Macros
Persistent macros can change the behavior of KaTeX (e.g. redefining standard commands), so for security, such a setup should be used only for multiple elements of common trust. For example, you might enable persistent macros within a message posted by a single user (by creating a `macros` object for that message), but you probably should not enable persistent macros across multiple messages posted by multiple users.