Makeindex and different kind of references

Question

The manual of Makeindex states:

In some indexes, certain page numbers are specially formatted—for example, an italic page number may indicate the primary reference, and an n after a page number may denote that the item appears in a footnote on that page. MakeIndex makes it easy to format an individual page number any way you want.

If I apply this to my file were persons appear in the text and in the notes on the same page, this MWE:

\documentclass{scrartcl} 
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} 
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel} 
\usepackage{makeidx} 
\makeindex 

\newcommand{\nn}[1]{#1n}

\begin{document} 

bla\index{Lahm} blablab\index{Lahm|nn} 

\newpage

bla\index{Lahm|nn} blablab

\printindex 

\end{document}

has an undesired index-output:

 Lahm, 1, 1, 2n

In fact it should be

 Lahm, 1, 1n, 2n

The reason as can be seen in the .ind-file:

\begin{theindex}

  \item Lahm, 1, \nn{1, 2}

\end{theindex}

It groups the two \nn-references. Of course this is not visible in the output. How can I avoid this?

(B.t.w. the .ilg file states:

-- Conflicting entries: multiple encaps for the same page under same key.

)

Upon further research it appears to me that this is a problem of the page range. Makeindex groups two pages with "," and one has to use an .ist file to change suffix_2p .

When writing this I came up with a workaround, though it is not the desired one: \newcommand{\nn}[1]{(#1)} thus making the parenthesis visible — Martin Mueller, Mar 30 '17 at 11:43

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 30 '17 at 12:24

You could re-write the \nn command so that it can handle a comma-separated list:

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\newcounter{notereferencecount}
\newcommand{\nn}[1]{%
  \setcounter{notereferencecount}{0}%
  \renewcommand{\do}[1]{%
    \ifnumequal{\value{notereferencecount}}{0}
      {##1n}
      {, ##1n}%
    \stepcounter{notereferencecount}}%
  \docsvlist{#1}}

Gives (I added a few more pages to make sure it did what I thought it would do!)

While the .ind file reads

  \item Lahm, 1, \nn{1, 2}, 3, \nn{4}

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 30 '17 at 13:07

3

A different implementation of Paul Stanley’s idea.

\documentclass{scrartcl} 
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} 
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel} 
\usepackage{makeidx}
\usepackage{xparse}

\makeindex 

\ExplSyntaxOn
\NewDocumentCommand{\nn}{m}
 {
  % split the argument at commas
  \seq_set_split:Nnn \l_martin_nn_in_seq { , } { #1 }
  % add a trailing n to each item
  \seq_set_map:NNn \l_martin_nn_out_seq \l_martin_nn_in_seq { ##1n }
  % output the items separated, if necessary, by "comma space"
  \seq_use:Nn \l_martin_nn_out_seq {,~}
 }
\seq_new:N \l_martin_nn_in_seq
\seq_new:N \l_martin_nn_out_seq
\ExplSyntaxOff

\begin{document} 

bla\index{Lahm} blablab\index{Lahm|nn}

bla\index{A} bla\index{A|nn}

bla\index{B} bla\index{B|nn}

\newpage

bla\index{Lahm|nn} blablab

bla\index{B|nn}

\newpage

bla\index{B|nn}

\printindex 

\end{document}

answered Mar 30 '17 at 13:07

egreg

1,121,712

Both solution seem to work fine. Is there a reason why one should prefer one to the other? – Martin Mueller Mar 30 '17 at 13:30
1

Not really ... except anything made by egreg is likely to be better than anything made by me! (But @egreg I don't agree with the use of an unbreakable space after a comma ...) – Paul Stanley Mar 30 '17 at 14:51
@PaulStanley It's not an unbreakable space, but a normal one; we're in an expl3 context. – egreg Mar 30 '17 at 15:18
1

Ah. This just proves why your answer is likely to be better! (I had forgotten about the sensible approach to whitespace in expl3). More shame. – Paul Stanley Mar 30 '17 at 15:20

Makeindex and different kind of references

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