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My biblatex gives weird output: for example, it writes "[Whi]" instead of ["Whittle"].

Furthermore, I would like to avoid writing the bibliography in the preamble, since the final work includes dozens of citations.

Minimal "working" example:

.tex file

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{comment}


\usepackage[
   backend=biber,
   style=alphabetic,
   sorting=ynt
  ]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{references.bib}


\title{The definitive research}
\author{The Supreme Chemist}


\begin{document}


\maketitle


\cite{whittle}


\medskip


\printbibliography


\end{document}

.bib file

@misc{whittle,
    author = "Whittle",
    title  = "Processes and apparatus for extraction of 
              active substances and enriched extracts 
              from natural products."
}

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Mico
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user3713179
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    biblatex's alphabetic style is configured to generate a label consisting of the first three letters of the family name of the author (if there is only one author) or the first letter of the family name (if there are more than two authors) plus the last two digits of the year. In your case that gives "Whi". Can you explain the rule you'd like biblatex to implement instead? – moewe Sep 20 '23 at 18:05
  • I really don't understand your second point, but since each question should only be about one issue anyway (https://tex.meta.stackexchange.com/q/7425/35864), I suggest you ask it in a new question and explain it there in more detail. – moewe Sep 20 '23 at 18:06
  • @moewe I'd like to write [Whittle] instead of the just three characters [Whi]. – user3713179 Sep 20 '23 at 18:13
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    what do you want it to do for 2 or more authors? – David Carlisle Sep 20 '23 at 18:16
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    What's the general rule here, though? What do you want to happen to a paper written by "Sigfridsson and Ryde"? What about a paper by "Aksın, Türkmen, Artok, Çetinkaya, Ni, Büyükgüngör and Özkal" – moewe Sep 20 '23 at 18:17
  • @DavidCarlisle an output like [Romano and Radoiu] – user3713179 Sep 20 '23 at 18:22
  • @moewe I'm brand new with BibTex, so thanks for the patience – user3713179 Sep 20 '23 at 18:23
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    and how do you want the bib list styled with such long cite keys, with a very wide label column, or with the entries not aligned or... ? – David Carlisle Sep 20 '23 at 18:23
  • @DavidCarlisle the best solution would be to use an identification number for the citation. For example, [1] for "Perrotin-Brunel, H., Kroon, M. C., Van Roosmalen, M. J., Van Spronsen, J.," Peters, C. J., and Witkamp". This leaves the problem of assigning the corresponding number to each citation – user3713179 Sep 20 '23 at 18:26
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    @user3713179 note you are not using bibtex but biblatex/biber (a style for bibtex would be very different answer than a style for biblatex) – David Carlisle Sep 20 '23 at 18:26
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    style=numeric, and you're done. – moewe Sep 20 '23 at 18:27
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    Numbers are the default but you asked for style=alphabetic, !!! – David Carlisle Sep 20 '23 at 18:27
  • ! Package biblatex Error: Style 'number' not found – user3713179 Sep 20 '23 at 18:27
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    Sorry, typo: Should have been style=numeric,. Fixed in the original comment. – moewe Sep 20 '23 at 18:28
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    Since you're new to biblatex you may want to have a look at https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/13509/35864 to learn more about what it is and how it works. – moewe Sep 20 '23 at 18:30
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    Note that sorting=ynt, is less commonly used in numeric styles, but since the labels are the only way for people to identify citations by, that does not necessarily make it worse than sorting=nyt, (the default). People often use sorting=none, with style=numeric, so that the citations are numbered "chronologically" by appearance. – moewe Sep 20 '23 at 18:32

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