Help:Footnotes

This page explains how to create footnotes when editing an article. Footnotes appear automatically in a numbered list at the end of an article when you use two small pieces of code in the text: <ref>...</ref> tags within the text, and <references /> or {{reflist}} at the end of the article where the footnote list is to appear.

The most common use of footnotes in Wikipedia articles is to provide references (inline citations), although footnotes can also be used for other purposes.

This page concerns technical methods for creating footnotes. For advice on how to organize and format references, see Citing sources and Citation template examples.

Overview

How a footnote is created in the editable text of a page. (Click to see more detail.)

The footnoting system involves two elements:

• Footnote markers. These are links, usually in the form , , etc. Clicking on a footnote marker will take you to the correspondingly numbered footnote.
• The footnotes themselves. These appear in a list (usually placed near the end of the article), and include links back to the corresponding footnote markers.

Footnote markers are generated using <ref> tags, and the list of footnotes is generated using the <references /> tag (or a corresponding template), placed in the editable text at the point where the footnotes are to appear. The text of a footnote is placed between opening <ref> and closing </ref> tags, either at the point where the footnote marker is to appear, or within the <references /> element. If the page contains footnote markers but no footnote list, a red cite error message will appear.

Creating a footnote marker

At the point in the page text where the footnote marker is to appear, enter the text of the footnote and put the two pieces of coding before and after the footnote-text, like this:

<ref>LibreOffice For Starters, First Edition, Flexible Minds, Manchester, 2002, p. 18</ref>

This will create a footnote marker (automatically numbered). The footnote text itself will appear in the footnote list, generated as described below. If there is no footnote list code, a red warning message will appear, reminding you to write the code that generates the list.

You can include formatting and links in a footnote in the usual way, although certain features, such as the pipe trick and template substitution, will not work in footnotes. For the formatting of references, citation templates, such as a generic {{citation}}, or more specific {{cite book}}, {{cite web}}, etc., are available, although many editors prefer not to use them. See Citing sources for details on how references can be structured.

To aid readability in the edit window, a single newline can be added after the closing </ref> tag before continuing with the text of the paragraph. This has the same effect as putting a space after the closing tag.

Multiple references to the same footnote

It is possible to refer to the same footnote more than once, in other words to generate several footnote markers, all with the same number, which link to the same footnote. To achieve this, named footnotes (named references) are used.

A footnote is named using the name parameter of the <ref> tag. Choose a name (such as "Perry"), and then at one of the footnote marker points (it makes sense to choose the first), enter the footnote like this:

<ref name="Perry">Perry's Handbook, Sixth Edition, McGraw-Hill Co., 1984.</ref>

Then you can create another identical marker linking to the same footnote from any other point in the text, by entering the following (note the final slash):

<ref name="Perry" />

The footnote name is internal and will not be displayed anywhere when the page is viewed. Footnote names are case sensitive and may not be an integer numeral. The quotes are optional unless the name or group includes a space, or certain punctuation marks and other characters. It is recommended that names be kept simple and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals.

Be careful when deleting text containing named footnotes – if you delete the instance which contains the footnote text, without replacing it elsewhere, you will break other instances of the same named footnote on the page. Error messages will be generated if the named footnotes used have not been properly defined.

Creating the footnote list

At the point where you want the text of the footnotes to appear (usually at the end of the article in a section titled "Notes" or "References" – see the Footers in the layout guideline), write the following code:

<references />

A commonly used alternative, which also introduces some formatting, is to use the {{Reflist}} template:

{{reflist}}

This template has parameters available for splitting the list into columns, and for controlling their width. For example, {{reflist|2}} creates a list split into two columns. For more options, see the reflist template documentation.

The footnote list must come after all the footnote reference markers.

If a footnote list is generated but there are no footnotes on the page, the list will simply appear empty (no warning or error message is displayed).

List-defined references

In order to make the article text easier to read in the edit window, particularly in sections with many citations, editors may decide to write all references (and other footnotes) in the shorter, "named" form. This can be done using the list-defined references function, where the content of the references is defined within the reference list, rather than in the article text. The syntax is as follows:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.<ref name="LazyDog" />

<references>
<ref name="LazyDog">This is the lazy dog reference.</ref>
</references>

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

This can also be done using the {{Reflist}} template with a |refs= parameter:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.<ref name="LazyDog" />
Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes.<ref name="Jukeboxes" />
How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts.<ref name="JumpingFrogs" />

==References==
{{reflist|
refs=
<ref name="LazyDog">This is the lazy dog reference.</ref>
<ref name="Jukeboxes">This is the jukeboxes reference.</ref>
<ref name="JumpingFrogs">This is the jumping frogs reference.</ref>
}}

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes. How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts.

References

References which are list-defined but unused will show a cite error message. The references will appear numbered in the order that they are referred to in the text, regardless of how they are ordered within the reflist/references template.

What it looks like

When a page with footnotes is displayed in a browser, the <ref> tags in the main text are converted to auto-numbered superscripts, like this:

The only reference to LibreOffice for Starters. The first reference to Perry's Handbook. The second reference to Perry's Handbook and to another, related book. A statement that requires a reference.Template:Fact The only reference to Linux in a Nutshell. And third reference to Perry's Handbook.

Clicking on a numbered superscript takes you straight to the text of the corresponding footnote. (The "^{[citation needed]}" item is not a footnote marker; it is produced by the {{fact}} template, used to indicate a point where a reference ought to be provided.)

The <references /> tag or {{reflist}} template is expanded to show the text of the footnotes against their corresponding numbers, like this:

For single-reference footnotes, clicking on the caret (^) takes you back to the footnote marker in the main text. For multiple-reference footnotes, the links back to the main text are distinguished by letter superscripts (a, b, c etc.). Clicking on a letter superscript takes you to the corresponding marker in the main text.

Previewing edits

When you edit a single section of a page, the footnotes list will not be visible when you preview your edits. Thus you ordinarily cannot see how your footnotes will later appear when you save your edits.

If this is a problem, you can insert a {{reflist}} into the edited section temporarily (remembering to delete it again before you save your edits). However you will still not be able to see named references which were defined in other sections: to do this, you would either have to paste in text from the other sections as a temporary measure, or open the whole page in the edit window instead of just one section.

Another workaround for this issue is to use the wikEd gadget.

Grouping footnotes

Sometimes it is useful to group the footnotes on a page into separate lists, for example to separate explanatory notes from references, or to list references for tables, image captions, infoboxes and navboxes. This can be accomplished with the group parameter. The sequence of footnote labels is independent in each group.

Common label prefix

Footnotes that do not use the group parameter have plain automatic numbers for their labels. When the group parameter is used, in-text footnote labels are formed from the group name, a space and the automatic number. However the labels in the footnote list entries just use the numbers without the prefix.

This part of the text requires clarification,<ref group="note">Listed separately from the citation</ref> whereas the entire text is cited.<ref>Citation.</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|close=1}}

Which will show as:

This part of the text requires clarification, whereas the entire text is cited.

Notes

References

Alternative label sequences

Instead of displaying the markers as numeric sequences, special group names are available which cause the footnote markers to be displayed in other predefined sequences, such as [i], [ii], [iii], ... or [a], [b], [c], ... Currently available names are decimal (which produces ordinary numbers), lower-alpha (which produces lower-case letters), upper-alpha, lower-greek, lower-roman and upper-roman. These special group names should be written without quotes. For details on how these sequences are defined, see Help:Cite link labels.

The back links used for multiple references to a footnote on Wikipedia have alphabetical labels, which can be confusing when alphabetical footnote markers are also used.

The in-text labels will always use the specified sequence type, however the footnote list generated by <references> uses plain decimal numbering by default. The {{reflist}} template automatically sets the CSS list style to achieve the correct labels.

Using the group name of "lower-alpha", the cite links will use lower case alpha characters.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! 05/08
| 4266 || 7828 || 7282<ref group=lower-alpha name=elk/> || 1105 || 224<ref group=lower-alpha name=elk/> || 161 || 916 <ref group=lower-alpha name=elk/>|| 506 || 231 || 4127 || 6190 || 6487<ref group=lower-alpha name=elk/> || 1139 || 241 || 205 || 1165 || 478 || 301
|-
! 04/08
| 4127 || 6190 || 6487 || 1139 || 241 || 205 || 1165<ref group=lower-alpha name=elk/> || 478 || 301<ref group=lower-alpha name=elk/> || 4266 || 7828 || 7282 || 1105<ref group=lower-alpha name=elk/> || 224 || 161 || 916<ref group=lower-alpha name=elk/> || 506 || 231
|}

{{reflist |group=lower-alpha |refs=
<ref name=elk>{{cite book |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972}}</ref>
}}

05/08	4266	7828	7282	1105	224	161	916	506	231	4127	6190	6487	1139	241	205	1165	478	301
04/08	4127	6190	6487	1139	241	205	1165	478	301	4266	7828	7282	1105	224	161	916	506	231

Multiple reference lists

The reference list markup <references /> or {{reflist}} will render any and all references placed before the reference list markup. If multiple reference list markup is used in a page, it may render references incorrectly. When a parameter is used with the reference list markup, this is not an issue, as the references will be properly closed. Since most multiple uses of reference list markup will use separate groups, this is not normally an issue.

In this example, note how the reference lists all show the first reference and the in-text footnote numbers are wrong:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. <ref>Reference 1</ref>
{{reflist}}

Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref>Reference 2</ref>
{{reflist}}

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.<ref>Reference 3</ref>
{{reflist}}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

To prevent this and close references so that they are not rendered incorrectly, the reference list markup must include any parameter, such as group |refs= or a column parameter. If parameters are not desired, a dummy parameter may be used, generally |close=; example:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. <ref>Reference 1</ref>
{{reflist|close=1}}

Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref>Reference 2</ref>
{{reflist|close=1}}

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.<ref>Reference 3</ref>
{{reflist|close=1}}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

Embedding references within footnotes

A <ref> code cannot be embedded within another <ref> code, which is a problem when you wish to place a reference within an explanatory footnote. Parenthetical referencing is commonly used as a workaround. However, the {{#tag:ref}} magic word supports references within footnotes. It is available in the "Wiki markup" edit window. The full syntax is {{#tag:ref|...|group="x"|name="x"}}, where ... is the full text of the footnote, which can now include <ref> tags in the normal way. The "group" and "name" parameters are optional.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.{{#tag:ref|A footnote.<ref name="ex">A reference for the footnote.</ref>|group="nb"}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group="nb"}}

==References==
{{reflist|name="ex"}}

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Notes

References

Attempting to use #tag:ref more than once within list-defined references will result in a cite error; see Template:Bug.

See also

• mw:Extension:Cite/Cite.php
• Help:Cite link labels