title: Latex - Apply an operation to every character in a string
body: <p>I am using LaTeX and I have a problem concerning string manipulation.
  I want to have an operation applied to every character of a string, specifically 
  I want to replace every character "x" with "\discretionary{}{}{}x". I want to do 
  this because I have a long string (DNA) which I want to be able to separate at 
  any point without hyphenation. </p>
  
  <p>Thus I would like to have a command called "myDNA" that will do this for me instead of 
  inserting manually \discretionary{}{}{} after every character.</p>
  
  <p>Is this possible? I have looked around the web and there wasnt much helpful 
  information on this topic (at least not any I could understand) and I hoped
  that you could help.</p>
  
  <p>--edit
  To clarify:
  What I want to see in the finished document is something like this:</p>
  
  <pre>
  
      the dna sequence is CTAAAGAAAACAGGACGATTAGATGAGCTTGAGAAAGCCATCACCACTCA
      AATACTAAATGTGTTACCATACCAAGCACTTGCTCTGAAATTTGGGGACTGAGTACACCAAATACGATAG
      ATCAGTGGGATACAACAGGCCTTTACAGCTTCTCTGAACAAACCAGGTCTCTTGATGGTCGTCTCCAGGT
      ATCCCATCGAAAAGGATTGCCACATGTTATATATTGCCGATTATGGCGCTGGCCTGATCTTCACAGTCAT
      CATGAACTCAAGGCAATTGAAAACTGCGAATATGCTTTTAATCTTAAAAAGGATGAAGTATGTGTAAACC
      CTTACCACTATCAGAGAGTTGAGACACCAGTTTTGCCTCCAGTATTAGTGCCCCGACACACCGAGATCCT
      AACAGAACTTCCGCCTCTGGATGACTATACTCACTCCATTCCAGAAAACACTAACTTCCCAGCAGGAATT
  </pre>
  
  <p>just plain linebreaks, without any hyphens. The DNA sequence will be one
  long string without any spaces or anything but it can break at any point.
  This is why my idea was to inesert a "\discretionary{}{}{}" after every
  character, so that it can break at any point without inserting any hyphens.</p>