B IB TEX rules and messages

16.2.4 B IB TEX rules and messages

Rule

B IB TEX and % You cannot comment out a field with an %.

444 Chapter 16 B IB TEX For example, the entry

@ARTICLE{eM57, author = "Ernest T. Moynahan", title = "On a Problem of {M. Stone}", journal = "Acta Math. Acad. Sci. Hungar.", % pages = "455-460", volume = 8, year = 1957, }

causes B IB TEX to generate the error message You’re missing a field name

line 23 of file sampartb.bib

% pages = "455-460", (Error may have been on previous line) I’m skipping whatever remains of this entry Warning--missing year in eM57 Warning--missing pages in eM57 (There was 1 error message)

Recall that B IB TEX ignores field names it cannot recognize. So changing the field name pages, for example to pages-comment, does not give an error message. However, doing so removes a required field, so you get the warning message

Warning--missing pages in eM57

Rule

B IB TEX field names Do not abbreviate field names.

For instance, if you abbreviate volume to vol, as in @ARTICLE{eM57,

author = "Ernest T. Moynahan", title = "On a Problem of {M. Stone}", journal = "Acta Math. Acad. Sci. Hungar.", pages = "455-460", vol = 8, year = 1957, }

the vol field is simply ignored. This entry is typeset as

16.2 Using B IB TEX 445

3. Ernest T. Moynahan, On a problem of M. Stone, Acta Math. Acad. Sci. Hungar. (1957), 455–460.

instead of

3. Ernest T. Moynahan, On a problem of M. Stone, Acta Math. Acad. Sci. Hungar. 8 (1957), 455–460.

Rule

B IB TEX field terminations Make sure that every field of an entry, except possibly the last, is terminated with a comma.

If you drop a comma before a field, you get an error message such as

I was expecting a ‘,’ or a ‘)’

line 6 of file sampartb.bib

year = 1968, (Error may have been on previous line) I’m skipping whatever remains of this entry Warning--missing year in gM68

Rule

B IB TEX field value terminations Make sure that the field value is properly terminated.

You should be careful not to drop a double quote or brace. If you drop the closing quote on line 11 of the bib file,

title = "General Lattice Theory you get the error message

I was expecting a ‘,’ or a ‘}’ line 12 of file sampartb.bib :

edition = " :

Expanded and Revised",

I’m skipping whatever remains of this entry Warning--missing publisher in fR82 Warning--missing year in fR82

446 Chapter 16 B IB TEX If, instead, you drop the opening double quote in the same line, you get the error

message Warning--string name "general" is undefined

--line 11 of file sampartb.bib

I was expecting a ‘,’ or a ‘}’

line 11 of file sampartb.bib

: title = general :

Lattice Theory",

I’m skipping whatever remains of this entry Warning--missing title in fR82 Warning--missing publisher in fR82 Warning--missing year in fR82 (There was 1 error message)

B IB TEX assumed that general was an abbreviation, since it was not preceded by a ". The obvious conclusion is that you have to be very careful about typing your

bibliographic entries for B IB TEX. If you have access to special tools for maintaining your bibliographic data, use them. Otherwise, refer to the template.bib file that contains templates of often-used entry types.