[Tex/LaTex] thebibliography environment printing cite key

bibliographies

Using the basic bibliography environment, when I have

\begin{thebibliography}
\bibitem{key01}
Beeblbrox, Zaphod, Galactic University Press
etc. etc.`
\end{thebibliography}

For some reason it prints the key in the document. So in the final document bibliography I end up with

key01 Galactic University Press etc. etc.

How can I prevent that key01 from ending up in the final document? I believe I'm following the instructions for the bibliography and cite usage on the Latex wiki to a t.

Also I'm ending up with a "[?]" where the citation is supposed to be. It's not working how it the latex wiki seems to say it should work for some reason.

Best Answer

Without a minimal example one can only guess, but the thebibliography environment needs a mandatory argument that determines the width of the widest label.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

Some text \cite{key01}.

\begin{thebibliography}{9}% 2nd arg is the width of the widest label.
\bibitem{key01}
Beeblebrox, Zaphod, Galactic University Press
etc. etc.`
\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}

BTW, you misspelled "Beeblebrox". ;-)

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[Tex/LaTex] alternative bibliography with specific entries, without assuming a global bibliography

Ok, I sort of worked a solution, and it should also clarify what I mean exactly.

% \butcheredbibliography - inserts an on-the-spot 'bibliography' -
% no title, no new section/chapter etc. - with no cite keys, smaller
% font and enclosed in a frame. Usable on the acknowledgement page
% of your thesis. This \nocite{}'s everything in the bib file, so
% have one with just those entries you need, or otherwise do your
% own nocites.
%
% arguments:
%  #1  the multibib bibliography name (appended to certain commands)
%  #2  the bibliography filename/s
%
\newsavebox{\butcheredbib@box}
\newcommand{\butcheredbibliography}[2]{
  \makeatletter
  \ifdefined\butcheredbib@acks
    % already used the #1 bibliography's source file/s, so
    % no need to re-indicate all items are necessary
  \else
    \@nameuse{nocite#1}{*} % e.g. \nociteacks{*}
  \fi
  \begingroup
  \let\etalchar\@undefined
  \def\thebibliography##1{%
    \begin{center}%
    \begin{spacing}{1}%
    \begin{lrbox}{\butcheredbib@box}%
    \footnotesize
    \begin{minipage}{0.9\textwidth}%
    \begin{list}{}{%
      \setlength{\leftmargin}{0in}%
      \setlength{\rightmargin}{0in}%
      %\setlength{\leftmargin}{0.1\textwidth}%
      %\setlength{\rightmargin}{0.1\textwidth}%
      }%
  }%
  \def\endthebibliography{%
    \end{list}%
    \end{minipage}%
    \end{lrbox}%
    \fbox{\usebox{\butcheredbib@box}}
    \end{spacing}%
    \end{center}%
  }%
  % the following works for 'alpha' bibliographystyle, and probably
  % most other styles in which a non-numeric key is generated - it uses
  % the generated cite key instead of the bullet
  \def\bibitem[##1]##2##3\par{\item[]##3}%
  % One can also filter the results, using an extra argument #3
  %\def\bibitem[##1]##2##3\par{\IfSubStr{,#3,}{,##2,}{\item[]##3}{}}%
  \ifdefined\butcheredbib@acks
    % already used the #1 bibliography's source file/s; we're
    % assuming the caller has not indicated other sources...
    \@input{#1.bbl}%
  \else
    \@nameuse{bibliography#1}{#2}
  \fi
  \global\expandafter\def\csname butcheredbib@#1\endcsname{}
  \endgroup%
  \makeatother
}

I use this thing twice in my Ph.D. thesis, on the Hebrew and English acknowledgements page - there's a silly requirement to this effect by our grad school. See the English page and the Hebrew page.

Anyway, the acks.bib file contains exactly those items I need to use. I could have done things differently (see the commented-out filtering), but it wasn't necessary eventually.

[Tex/LaTex] Runaway argument? { \end {thebibliography} ! File ended while scanning use of \BRorg@thebibliography

There are two parts to this problem. Both must be attended to simultaneously. Fixing either one separately won't solve the problem.

First, the compile is reading the .bbl file, so that will need to be removed and rebuilt. But before removing it, it's worth looking at it to see if you can spot a place where the code looks flaky. (The .bbl file wasn't shown in the question, so can't be specific.)

Next, look at the .bib file. The obvious things to look for are incomplete entries -- missing closing braces or commas are the usual culprits, but that's not the case here. However, there's something else that appears to be incomplete: After the entry beginning @BOOK{MG, there is an incomplete entry beginning {Pan, with no entry type. I can't say for sure that this is what has caused the problem, but it does need to be fixed. It looks like an entry from a journal, so change it to

@ARTICLE{Pan,

Then, after making sure the old .bbl file has been removed, reprocess, recreating the .bbl file from the updated .bib file. Check to make sure there were no errors in the Bibtex run; that will create a .blg file as a record, and it's worthwhile to become familiar with that, since errors in the Bibtex run will usually have repercussions in the LaTeX run, even if only to omit a reference (which will not stop the processing, but will leave an unresolved \cite),

After compiling again with LaTeX, if the change to the .bib file was correct, the job will finish, and the output will be what you expect.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] alternative bibliography with specific entries, without assuming a global bibliography

[Tex/LaTex] Runaway argument? { \end {thebibliography} ! File ended while scanning use of \BRorg@thebibliography

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