Create custom counter

Question

I want in a document of mine to keep a lot of notes so I would like to create a custom counter so every note to be numbered like this:

0001

0002

0003

0004

(They are deliberately bold as this is the style I would like)

I would like the counter to work like the enumerate environment so to add a keyword in front of the note I want to number and also to be able to reset it.

The reasons I don't use the enumerate environment are:

I want the numbers to be bold
I want custom formatting of the numbers i.e. 0001 etc...
I really want to see how I can create something like that.

Do you mean 'create' your own from scratch, or use a package like fmtcount? — jon, Aug 24 '16 at 04:22
@jon I had no idea that there was a package...Also I don't really know if it is difficult or not. Basically I thought that a counter could be pretty simple if you know what you are doing... — Adam, Aug 24 '16 at 04:36
Related (probably duplicate, since the main issue here is formatting the counter.) You can use it in an environment as you see fit. How to output a counter with leading zeros? — Alan Munn, Aug 24 '16 at 04:39
Well, creating a counter is dead easy: in LaTeX, just \newcounter{xyz} creates a counter called xyz. Padding zeroes so you can get output like: 0001, 0014, 0589, 9999. is a more tricky. — jon, Aug 24 '16 at 04:52
@jon For simplicity's sake I can compromise. How can it be used? — Adam, Aug 24 '16 at 05:09

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 24 '16 at 05:02

7

For example, with including the boldness into the appearance of the counter:

\documentclass{article}

\newcounter{custom}
\renewcommand*{\thecustom}{%
  \textbf{%
    \ifnum\value{custom}<1000 0\fi
    \ifnum\value{custom}<100 0\fi
    \ifnum\value{custom}<10 0\fi
    \arabic{custom}%
  }%
}

\begin{document}
\thecustom,
\refstepcounter{custom}\thecustom,
\refstepcounter{custom}\thecustom
\label{abc}

\setcounter{custom}{123}\thecustom,
\setcounter{custom}{7654}\thecustom,
ref: \ref{abc}
\end{document}

An alternative would be to make the numbers bold in the markup macros for the notes only. Then the referenced numbers would appear in normal font.

answered Aug 24 '16 at 05:02

Heiko Oberdiek

271,626

Thank you! Every time I have to increase the counter I have to right \refstepcounter{custom}\thecustom? – Adam Aug 24 '16 at 05:35
@Adam The value of the counter can also be changed by \stepcounter{<counter>} or \addtocounter{<counter>}{<amount>}. Only \refstepcounter allows the counter to be referenced and \label with \ref will work for this counter. – Heiko Oberdiek Aug 24 '16 at 05:50

Create custom counter

1 Answers1