Is it possible to have several keys referring to the same bibliography entry (using biblatex+Biber)?
For example, I'd like \cite{Tolkien:1954:LordOfTheRings} and \cite{lotr} to have exactly the same effect when used in a document (and produce only a single bibliography entry, when both are used in the same document).
With newer versions of biblatex (≥2.0) and biber (≥0.9.8) you can define your entries as normal and use the "IDS" field for extra citations keys:
@BOOK{key,
IDS = {key2, key3, ..., keyn},
.
.
}
You can then cite by any of the keys, you can cite by any of them mixed in the same section and and you can use \nocite{*} too - it won't duplicate entries in the bibliography. In fact, the other keys are just aliases to the main key which owns the entry in the .bbl and are redirected to the main key before any label generation etc. happens.
It will also detect if you use a key as a primary key and also an alias elsewhere, in which case it will disable the alias. It also notices duplicate aliases as well as keys now.
biblatex/biber combo keeps getting better and better!
– lockstep
Dec 08 '11 at 23:13
Undefined control sequence \keyalias. So are any update on this by now? Still biblatex person not available?
@PLK: can you say what slightly hacked means? I mean is there a patch to see the actual difference? The link to the biblatex.sty seems outdated.
– math
Oct 18 '13 at 08:22
crossref/xdata.
– PLK
Jun 09 '19 at 13:07
The following, taken from "Alias for BiBTeX Keys" on comp.text.tex, provides \bibalias{<alias>}{<source>} and should use \acite{<citation>} instead of \cite{<citation>}:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{biblatex}% http://ctan.org/pkg/biblatex
\bibliography{references}
\makeatletter
% \bibalias{<alias>}{<source>} makes \cite{<alias>} equivalent to \cite{<source>}
\newcommand\bibalias[2]{%
\@namedef{bibali@#1}{#2}%
}
\newtoks\biba@toks
\newcommand\acite[2][]{%
\biba@toks{\cite#1}%
\def\biba@comma{}%
\def\biba@all{}%
\@for\biba@one:=#2\do{%
\@ifundefined{bibali@\biba@one}{%
\edef\biba@all{\biba@all\biba@comma\biba@one}%
}{%
\PackageInfo{bibalias}{%
Replacing citation `\biba@one' with `\@nameuse{bibali@\biba@one}'
}%
\edef\biba@all{\biba@all\biba@comma\@nameuse{bibali@\biba@one}}%
}%
\def\biba@comma{,}%
}%
\edef\biba@tmp{\the\biba@toks{\biba@all}}%
\biba@tmp
}
\makeatother
\bibalias{Tolkien:1954:LordOfTheRings}{lotr}
\begin{document}
The reference~\acite{Tolkien:1954:LordOfTheRings} is
exactly the same as~\acite{lotr}.
\bibstyle{plain}
\printbibliography
\end{document}
where references.bib resembles:
@book{lotr,
author = "J.R.R. Tolkien",
title = "{The Lord of the Rings}",
address = "New York",
year = 1954,
publisher = "Ballantine Books"
}
\cite. I think it'll accept anything that has a comma-separated list of labels as the first mandatory argument and pretty arbitrary stuff between the command and that argument.)
– Ulrich Schwarz
Dec 06 '11 at 07:41
.bib file), but that doesn't seem to be possible.
– Caramdir
Dec 06 '11 at 19:11
Pure-bibtex answer:
Put this in the preamble and then use \bibalias{new key}{old, long, and cumbersome key}. It is the original LaTeX \cite macro, modified only by the two unindented "magic" lines.
% Bib aliases
\makeatletter
\def\@citex[#1]#2{\leavevmode
\let\@citea\@empty
\@cite{\@for\@citeb:=#2\do
{\@citea\def\@citea{,\penalty\@m\ }%
\edef\magic##1{\let##1\expandafter\noexpand\csname bibalias@\@citeb\endcsname}%
\magic\tmp \ifx\tmp\relax\else \let\@citeb\tmp\fi
\edef\@citeb{\expandafter\@firstofone\@citeb\@empty}%
\if@filesw\immediate\write\@auxout{\string\citation{\@citeb}}\fi
\@ifundefined{b@\@citeb}{\hbox{\reset@font\bfseries ?}%
\G@refundefinedtrue
\@latex@warning
{Citation `\@citeb' on page \thepage \space undefined}}%
{\@cite@ofmt{\csname b@\@citeb\endcsname}}}}{#1}}
\def\bibalias#1#2{\expandafter\def\csname bibalias@#1\endcsname{#2}}
\makeatother
biblatex is). It works by tweaking the lowest level of LaTeX's \cite, so probably works with anything that does not touch that command; else, adapting it should be fairly trivial!
– Circonflexe
Feb 12 '16 at 14:53
biblatex since that uses a new way to implement the \cite macros and indeed, it didn't work for me just now. (To be fair, I cannot say for sure that I dibn't do something wrong, I just copied the code, wrote a \bibalias and expected it to work with \cite.) Maybe you want to warn people that your solution will not work with biblatex out of the box (the question is specifically about biblatex). I assume the "trivial" modifications will lead to something like in Werner's answer?
– moewe
Feb 12 '16 at 16:58
lotris defined in your bibliography and you want to useTolkien:1954:LordOfTheRings, try\makeatletter \expandafter\def\csname b@Tolkien:1954:LordOfTheRings\endcsname{\b@lotr} \makeatotherin your document preamble? – Werner Dec 05 '11 at 22:54\cite{\csname b@Tolkien:1954:LordOfTheRings\endcsname}in the main text? – lockstep Dec 06 '11 at 00:06\cite{<stuff>}checks for the existence of\b@<stuff>via a construction. So you should just be able to use\cite{Tolkien:1954:LordOfTheRings}. – Werner Dec 06 '11 at 00:10bibtex; notbiblatex.biblatexdefines things in a much more complicated way it seems. – Werner Dec 06 '11 at 07:28@crossrefdirectly in the .bib-File? I uses this occasionally for fixing typos or convention issues in keys to stay backward compatible. I have not yet tried to use both keys within the same document, so it might be perfectly possible that you end up with two entries. – Daniel Dec 06 '11 at 09:53@crossreftype doesn't exist; using thecrossreffield gives duplicate entries in the bibliography list if both keys are used in the same document. – Caramdir Dec 06 '11 at 19:09