[Tex/LaTex] Biblatex authoryear style & giveninits options – conflicting options warning

biblatexwarnings

I want to use initials in authoryear style instead of full given names. I tried:

\usepackage[backend=biber,style=authoryear,hyperref=true,giveninits]{biblatex}

It works properly but produces the warning:

Conflicting options.

How to properly customize authoryear style then?

Best Answer

The full warning message I get in the .log is

Package biblatex Warning: Conflicting options.
(biblatex)                '<namepart>inits' conflicts with 'uniquename=full'.
(biblatex)                Setting 'uniquename=init' on input line 10.

This tells you that since you only want given/first name initials with the option giveninits, you can't get full uniquename disambiguation if need be (as automatically requested by the authoryear style with uniquename=full). The message goes on to say that the option will be set to

uniquename=init

to allow for name disambiguation at least by name initials.

If you don't want the warning in the first place, just load biblatex with uniquename=init from the start.

\usepackage[backend=biber,style=authoryear,uniquename=init,giveninits]{biblatex}

If you don't want name disambiguation at all, use uniquename=false instead (see biblatex, authoryear style: In-text citations display first name initials for certain bibliography entries for example).

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