Two or three letter initials in bibliography with Biblatex

Question

In my bibliography, I need to abreviate first names keeping digraphs and trigraphs.

John should be abreviated as J.
Clare should be abreviated as Cl.
Charles should be abreviated as Ch.
Christine should be abreviated as Chr.
Philippe should be abreviated as Ph.
etc.

The solution is to modify the first name in the bibliographical data from

Charles

to

{\relax Ch}arles

The following example uses the \DeclareSourcemap customization macro in Biblatex to change Charles to {\relax Ch}arles but I'm looking for a more generic solution that would automatically modify all first names starting with two or three consonants.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents}
 \begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
  @book{Book1,
  author = {Doe, Charles},
  title  = {An Important Book},
  publisher = {Publisher},
  date = {2012},
}
@book{Book2,
  author = {Doe, Charlotte},
  title  = {Another Important Book},
  publisher = {Publisher},
  date = {2014},
}
@book{Book3,
  author = {Smith, Theodore},
  title  = {A very Important Book},
  publisher = {Publisher},
  date = {2016},
}
\end{filecontents}
\usepackage[style=verbose,firstinits=true, backend=biber]{biblatex}
\DeclareSourcemap{
 \maps[datatype=bibtex]{
    \map{
    \step[fieldsource=author, 
            match={Charles},
            replace=\regexp{\{\\relax \x20Ch\}arles}]
  }
 }
}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\begin{document}

\cite{Book1}

\cite{Book2}

\cite{Book3}

\end{document}

See the code used in class droit-fr. – ienissei Feb 23 '16 at 14:09 — ienissei, Feb 23 '16 at 14:09
@ienissei That sounds like a nice answer to me. – moewe Feb 23 '16 at 14:31 — moewe, Feb 23 '16 at 14:31

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

5

A possible starting point would be to use the code Yves de Saint-Pern wrote in class droit-fr, which I am translating below.

EDIT : The regular expressions provided here catch last names as well, which may cause issues outside Biblatex, for instance in indexes done with imakeidx. A tentative solution to this problem is provided here.

You can use it in a biber.conf file or include it in your .bbx.

Some languages may require additional regex patterns for first names, but they are pretty straightforward to add.

\DeclareStyleSourcemap{%
  \maps[datatype=bibtex]{%
    \map{%
        % Author field
      \step[fieldsource=author,%
        match={\regexp{\b(Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|[B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ](l|r))(\S*,)}},%
        replace={\regexp{\{$1\}$3}}]% Protect last names (first last)
      \step[fieldsource=author,%
        match={\regexp{([^,]\s)\b(Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|[B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ](l|r))}},%
        replace={\regexp{$1\{$2\}}}]% Protect last names (last, first)
      \step[fieldsource=author,%
        match={\regexp{\b(Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|[B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ](l|r))([^\}])}},%
        replace={\regexp{\{\\relax\{\}$1\}$3}}]% Insert \relax after abbreviating
      % Editor field
      \step[fieldsource=editor,%
        match={\regexp{\b(Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|[B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ](l|r))(\S*,)}},%
        replace={\regexp{\{$1\}$3}}]% Protect last names (first last)
      \step[fieldsource=editor,%
        match={\regexp{([^,]\s)\b(Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|[B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ](l|r))}},%
        replace={\regexp{$1\{$2\}}}]% Protect last names (last, first)
      \step[fieldsource=editor,%
        match={\regexp{\b(Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|[B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ](l|r))([^\}])}},%
        replace={\regexp{\{\\relax\{\}$1\}$3}}]% Insert \relax after abbreviating
}}}%

As far as the regular expressions are concerned, I am no expert but I would hazard that the expression means this:

\b(Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|[B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ](l|r))(\S*,)

A word (\b) that starts with (\S* means: ends with any number of non-space characters): Chr (Chris) or Ch (Charles) or Th (Thomas) or Ph (Philippe), or any combination that starts with a consonant (the [B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ part is a set of ranges: letters B to D, F to H, J to N, P to T, V to X, Z) followed by l or r (Bruno or Claire would fall within that category).

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Community

1

answered Feb 23 '16 at 14:49

ienissei

6,223

Thank you. I found https://github.com/ienissei/frenchlaw/ on your github how is that related to droit-fr, if you don't mind me asking? I'm not great with RegEx, so I would really appreciate an explanation if you can find the time. I would be especially interested in the [B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ] bit. – moewe Feb 23 '16 at 14:57
Class droit-fr is meant for writing french dissertations in legal studies, and I am working on a very similar project (by coincidence more than by design, as I started with it before this class was published). It was updated lately and I saw the feature on the log. – ienissei Feb 23 '16 at 15:02
@moewe – Added the explanation – ienissei Feb 23 '16 at 15:12
1

Ahh, I see. Thank you also for the explanation, I now noticed I had failed to see the (l|r) after the [B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ] bit. – moewe Feb 23 '16 at 15:14
@ienissei how can this only be applied to first names - and not to last names? see http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/330971/98739 – lukascbossert Sep 23 '16 at 14:20
@LukasCB Commenting under your question. – ienissei Sep 23 '16 at 16:53
How can I get it work only for Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|St ? – lukascbossert Sep 23 '16 at 17:51
@LukasCB Just remove the rest of the string. Change: (Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|[B-DF-HJ-NP-TV-XZ](l|r)) to (Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|St) – ienissei Sep 23 '16 at 18:17
@ienissei thanks. I realized that ()(before (l|r) is important to keep, otherwise the first letter after Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|St will be omitted; correct:(Chr|Ch|Th|Ph|St)() – lukascbossert Sep 23 '16 at 18:19
@LukasCB Yes, because the replacement string looks for three groups, which are the text between (), so you could also change $3 to $2 for the same result. – ienissei Sep 23 '16 at 18:37

Two or three letter initials in bibliography with Biblatex

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