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I know that this is not a specific LaTeX question but a biblatex/Biber one, but I don't know where to ask else.

I changed my operating system from Win 7 (my Laptop) to my PC (Win 10). On my Laptop everything was fine. Biber compiled everything smooth no problems. But now I get the following error while compiling:

ERROR - BibTeX subsystem: C:\Users\SomeUser\AppData\Local\Temp\B8fkc98Xa4\HumanCapitalIndustrialRevolution.bib_10848.utf8,
  line 383,
syntax error: found ",",
  expected one of: number, name (entry type, key, field, or macro name),
    end of entry ("}" or ")") or quoted string ({...} or "...")

I searched for a long timn through several posts and questions. The only similar thing I found was this question : biber generate empty bbl file

I think the problem could be solved by doing the same (a change of the user environment variables/ TeXStudio biber path) but I don't know how to do that. Couldn't find anything similiar in TeXStudio even in the advanced settings.

Hope anyone can help me. The file is compiled with TeXStudio on Win 10. I know adding a MWE is an unwritten must do in this forum but I couldn't see how this would help the answear beacause the pdf is created without problem TeXStudio just can't compile the bibliography and thereby the references.

EDIT 1 More Infos + .bgl file

Might be useful to mention, that Biber produces an empty bbl file.

The .bgl file contains this:

[0] Config.pm:304> INFO - This is Biber 2.12
[0] Config.pm:307> INFO - Logfile is 'Bachelorarbeit_Human_Capital_in_the_Ind_Revolution_rework_2.blg'
[28] biber-MSWIN64:315> INFO - === 
[60] Biber.pm:371> INFO - Reading 'Bachelorarbeit_Human_Capital_in_the_Ind_Revolution_rework_2.bcf'
[156] Biber.pm:889> INFO - Found 22 citekeys in bib section 0
[170] Biber.pm:4093> INFO - Processing section 0
[184] Biber.pm:4254> INFO - Looking for bibtex format file 'HumanCapitalIndustrialRevolution.bib' for section 0
[193] bibtex.pm:1523> INFO - LaTeX decoding ...
[254] bibtex.pm:1340> INFO - Found BibTeX data source 'HumanCapitalIndustrialRevolution.bib'
[257] Utils.pm:193> WARN - Invalid or undefined BibTeX entry key in file 'C:\Users\SomeUser\AppData\Local\Temp\B8fkc98Xa4\HumanCapitalIndustrialRevolution.bib_10848.utf8', skipping ...
[329] Utils.pm:193> WARN - year field '2009b' in entry 'Allen2009' is not an integer - this will probably not sort properly.
[351] Utils.pm:209> ERROR - BibTeX subsystem: C:\Users\SomeUser\AppData\Local\Temp\B8fkc98Xa4\HumanCapitalIndustrialRevolution.bib_10848.utf8, line 383, syntax error: found ",", expected one of: number, name (entry type, key, field, or macro name), end of entry ("}" or ")") or quoted string ({...} or "...")
[351] Biber.pm:110> INFO - WARNINGS: 2
[351] Biber.pm:114> INFO - ERRORS: 1
mugdi
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    biblatex/Biber questions are perfectly on-topic here. The error is unfortunately as clear as it gets. In or around line 383 of your .bib file something is wrong. Quite probably you have an entry without entry key, e.g. @article{, instead of @article{sigfridsson,. Can you show us the entries from around line 383 in your .bib file.? – moewe Jan 02 '19 at 11:25
  • There is just one small chance of getting a slightly more helpful message: This is not the entire log that Biber will have produced, check out the entire .blg file (note that on Windows .blg files may be classified as 'performance monitor' files, but they are still plain text files you can open and view with your favourite text editor; you may have to unhide file extensions to find the file) and post it in full here. For the empty key issue see https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/461802/35864. – moewe Jan 02 '19 at 11:30
  • Together with WARN - Invalid or undefined BibTeX entry key I'm quite confident that you have an entry with missing/empty entry key (see https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/461802/35864). You just have to find it. You may be able to locate the problematic entry by searching for {, in your .bib file. – moewe Jan 02 '19 at 11:41
  • I cant find a .bbi file in my compiling directory. Where is it produced/saved? – mugdi Jan 02 '19 at 11:42
  • The warning WARN - year field '2009b' in entry 'Allen2009' is not an integer is also something you should take at look at: You should never have to manually give the disambiguation letters for a year. biblatex adds them automatically if required. – moewe Jan 02 '19 at 11:43
  • Sorry, I meant .bib not .bbi (fixed in the comment). – moewe Jan 02 '19 at 11:43
  • No idea how I missed an undefined entry. Everything works fine now. Thanks pal, saved me many hours. – mugdi Jan 02 '19 at 11:52

1 Answers1

15

The high-level warning message

[257] Utils.pm:193> WARN - Invalid or undefined BibTeX entry key in file 'C:\Users\Nils\AppData
\Local\Temp\B8fkc98Xa4\HumanCapitalIndustrialRevolution.bib_10848.utf8',
skipping ...

together with the lower-level error

[351] Utils.pm:209> ERROR - BibTeX subsystem: C:\Users\Nils\AppData\Local
\Temp\B8fkc98Xa4\HumanCapitalIndustrialRevolution.bib_10848.utf8, line 383,
syntax error: found ",",
expected one of: number, name (entry type, key, field, or macro name),
  end of entry ("}" or ")") or quoted string ({...} or "...")

strongly suggests that there is an entry with empty entry key in your .bib file. While BibTeX will accept exactly one entry with empty key, Biber will not accept any entry without key. Even in BibTeX entries without keys can't be cited.

The scheme for a .bib entry is

@<type>{<entry key>,
  <field_1> = {<value_1>},
  <field_2> = {<value_2>},
  ...
  <field_n> = {<value_n>},
}

where <entry key> should be non-empty.

You just have to find the entry that looks like

@article{,
  author       = {Sigfridsson, Emma and Ryde, Ulf},
  title        = {Comparison of methods for deriving atomic charges from the
                  electrostatic potential and moments},
  journaltitle = {Journal of Computational Chemistry},
  date         = 1998,
  volume       = 19,
  number       = 4,
  pages        = {377-395},
  doi          = {10.1002/(SICI)1096-987X(199803)19:4<377::AID-JCC1>3.0.CO;2-P},
}

instead of

@article{sigfridsson,
  author       = {Sigfridsson, Emma and Ryde, Ulf},
  title        = {Comparison of methods for deriving atomic charges from the
                  electrostatic potential and moments},
  journaltitle = {Journal of Computational Chemistry},
  date         = 1998,
  volume       = 19,
  number       = 4,
  pages        = {377-395},
  doi          = {10.1002/(SICI)1096-987X(199803)19:4<377::AID-JCC1>3.0.CO;2-P},
}

The line number in the error should be fairly accurate, just check a few lines above and below. You can also search for {, in your .bib file.

moewe
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