Change separator for articles in journals without volume number (biblatex)

Question

I have the following code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[style = authoryear-comp]{biblatex}
\AtEveryBibitem{\ifentrytype{article}{\clearfield{number}}{}} % don't print issue for article entries
\renewbibmacro{in:}{\ifentrytype{article}{}{\printtext{\bibstring{in}\intitlepunct}}} % don't print "in" for articles
\renewcommand{\bibpagespunct}{\ifentrytype{article}{\addcolon}{\addperiod\addspace}} % colon between volume and page ranges for journal articles, period plus space for articles in books
\DeclareFieldFormat[article, incollection, unpublished]{pages}{#1} % no word 'pages' for articles in the bibliography (print as is)
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@ARTICLE{jensen1916,
    AUTHOR = "Alfred Jensen",
    TITLE = "Bemerkninger til dagligtalen i Kristiania",
    JOURNALTITLE = "Maal og Minne",
    YEAR = "1916",
    NUMBER = "1--2",
    PAGES = "60--89"}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\begin{document}
\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

The bibliographic entry is an article in a journal that doesn't use volume numbers (because it issues one volume each year, so the year itself is sufficient information). The code above will print a colon separator between the name of the journal and the page range. I think this looks weird.

enter image description here

In such cases I'd prefer either white space:

Jensen, Alfred (1916). "Bemerkninger til dagligtalen i Kristiania". Maal og Minne 60-89.

or a comma plus a space:

Jensen, Alfred (1916). "Bemerkninger til dagligtalen i Kristiania". Maal og Minne, 60-89.

How can I achieve this, so that it prints a colon when the journal has a volume number, but white space or comma plus white space when there is no volume number?

You do realise though that you do clear the number field for article, so in your bibliography no entry has a number field (\ifentrytype{article}{\clearfield{number}}{}). So do you just want a comma for @articles instead of a colon (or the period)? — moewe, Sep 03 '14 at 14:29
@moewe Yes, I included the code where I'm clearing the number field in case that should become relevant. But, I don't clear the volume field. I just want a comma if the volume field is empty. (The number field is what's normally called 'issues'). — Sverre, Sep 03 '14 at 14:31

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 03 '14 at 14:36

We can flesh out the logic in \renewcommand{\bibpagespunct}{\ifentrytype{article}{\addcolon}{\addperiod\addspace}} a bit more to

\renewcommand*{\bibpagespunct}{%
  \ifentrytype{article}{%
     \iffieldundef{volume}
       {\addcomma\space}
       {\addcolon}}
    {\addperiod\addspace}}

This prints a comma if the entry is an @article without a volume, prints a colon, if we have an @article with a volume and a full stop otherwise.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[style = authoryear-comp]{biblatex}

\AtEveryBibitem{\ifentrytype{article}{\clearfield{number}}{}} % don't print issue for article entries
\renewbibmacro{in:}{\ifentrytype{article}{}{\printtext{\bibstring{in}\intitlepunct}}} % don't print "in" for articles
 % colon between volume and page ranges for journal articles, period plus space for articles in books
\DeclareFieldFormat[article, incollection, unpublished]{pages}{#1} % no word 'pages' for articles in the bibliography (print as is)

\renewcommand{\bibpagespunct}{%
  \ifentrytype{article}{%
     \iffieldundef{volume}
       {\addcomma\space}
       {\addcolon}}
    {\addperiod\addspace}}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@ARTICLE{jensen1916,
    AUTHOR = "Alfred Jensen",
    TITLE = "Bemerkninger til dagligtalen i Kristiania",
    JOURNALTITLE = "Maal og Minne",
    YEAR = "1916",
    NUMBER = "1--2",
    PAGES = "60--89"}
\end{filecontents*}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
\nocite{angenendt,jensen1916}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

enter image description here

Bernard · Answer 2 · 2014-09-03T15:04:15.530

Is that like you want?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[style = authoryear-comp]{biblatex}

\AtEveryBibitem{\ifentrytype{article}{\clearfield{number}}{}} % don't print issue for article entries
    \renewbibmacro{in:}{\ifentrytype{article}{}{\printtext{\bibstring{in}\intitlepunct}}} % don't print "in" for articles
    \renewcommand{\bibpagespunct}{\ifentrytype{article}{\addcolon}{\addperiod\addspace}} % colon between volume and page ranges for journal articles, period plus space for articles in books
    \DeclareFieldFormat[article, incollection, unpublished]{pages}{#1} % no word 'pages' for articles in the bibliography (print as is)

 \renewcommand\bibpagespunct{\iffieldundef{volume}{\addcomma\space}{\addcolon\space}}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@ARTICLE{jensen1916,
    AUTHOR = "Alfred Jensen",
    TITLE = "Bemerkninger til dagligtalen i Kristiania",
    JOURNALTITLE = "Maal og Minne",
    YEAR = "1916",
    NUMBER = "1--2",
    PAGES = "60--89"}
@ARTICLE{Ricoeur:2000ga,
    AUTHOR = {Ricœur, Paul}, 
    TITLE = {{L'écriture de l'histoire et la représentation du passé}},
    JOURNAL = {AHESS},
    YEAR = {2000},
    VOLUME = {55},
    NUMBER = {4},
    PAGES = {731--747},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

\nocite{*}
\printbibliography

\end{document}

enter image description here

No, because this simply undoes my own renewcommand{\bibpagespunct} where I make sure that a colon is printed between the volume number and the page range. I only want to remove the colon if there is no volume number. Your \renewcommand\bibpagespunct{\addcomma\space} won't print a colon anywhere. — Sverre, Sep 03 '14 at 13:59
Do you mean you want a colon if there's a volume number and a comma or nothing if there's none? — Bernard, Sep 03 '14 at 14:18
Yes. The question I posed was "How can I achieve this, so that it prints a colon when the journal has a volume number, but white space or comma plus white space when there is no volume number?". — Sverre, Sep 03 '14 at 14:20

Change separator for articles in journals without volume number (biblatex)

2 Answers2

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