Using custom labels with the `alpha` BibTeX style

2017-12-08

The alpha BibTeX style produces citation labels of the form [Ken90] or [XYZ94]. While it usually does the right thing, sometimes it doesn’t get the label right (e.g. the label is too long when the authors have multiple / hyphenated last names). Here is how you can provide a custom label with the alpha style.

The simplest method would be to download my style file. (This also hyperlinks DOI/URLs correctly as described here.) Save the file in the same directory as your tex file and use it by putting the following in your tex file:

\bibliographystyle{halpha-abbrv}
\bibliography{refs}

Now if you want to cite your entries with a custom label (e.g. A17 instead of the default Aut17), then provide the label you want in the label field. For example:

@Article{     foo,
  label         = {A17},
  author        = {Author, A},
  title         = {Example entry},
  journal       = {ArXiv e-prints},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint        = {1707.03780},
  primaryclass  = {physics.flu-dyn},
  doi           = {10.1010/doi-that-will-become-a-hyperlink},
  url           = {http://your.custom.url},
  year          = 2017,
}

This entry will be cited as [A17].

If you are using a different style file, and need to get a similar effect, then you will have to edit the calc.label function of your style file. Here are the changes I made:

diff --git a/halpha-abbrv.bst b/halpha-abbrv.bst
index a960aa9..4408167 100644
--- a/halpha-abbrv.bst
+++ b/halpha-abbrv.bst
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ ENTRY
   { address
     author
     booktitle
+    label
     chapter
     edition
     editor
@@ -41,7 +42,7 @@ ENTRY
     year
   }
   {}
-  { label extra.label sort.label }
+  { cite.label extra.label sort.label }

 INTEGERS { output.state before.all mid.sentence after.sentence after.block }

@@ -93,7 +94,7 @@ FUNCTION {output.check}
 FUNCTION {output.bibitem}
 { newline$
   "\bibitem[" write$
-  label write$
+  cite.label write$
   "]{" write$
   cite$ write$
   "}" write$
@@ -1125,24 +1126,28 @@ FUNCTION {editor.key.organization.label}
 }

 FUNCTION {calc.label}
-{ type$ "book" =
-  type$ "inbook" =
-  or
-    'author.editor.key.label
-    { type$ "proceedings" =
-   'editor.key.organization.label
-   { type$ "manual" =
-       'author.key.organization.label
-       'author.key.label
-     if$
-   }
+{ label empty$
+    { type$ "book" =
+      type$ "inbook" =
+      or
+        'author.editor.key.label
+        { type$ "proceedings" =
+            'editor.key.organization.label
+            { type$ "manual" =
+                'author.key.organization.label
+                'author.key.label
+              if$
+            }
+          if$
+        }
       if$
+      duplicate$
+      year field.or.null purify$ #-1 #2 substring$
+      *
     }
+    { label duplicate$ }
   if$
-  duplicate$
-  year field.or.null purify$ #-1 #2 substring$
-  *
-  'label :=
+  'cite.label :=
   year field.or.null purify$ #-1 #4 substring$
   *
   sortify 'sort.label :=
@@ -1311,10 +1316,10 @@ FUNCTION {reverse.pass}
     { "a" 'extra.label := }
     'skip$
   if$
-  label extra.label * 'label :=
-  label width$ longest.label.width >
-    { label 'longest.label :=
-      label width$ 'longest.label.width :=
+  cite.label extra.label * 'cite.label :=
+  cite.label width$ longest.label.width >
+    { cite.label 'longest.label :=
+      cite.label width$ 'longest.label.width :=
     }
     'skip$
   if$

You will have to do something similar to your style file.

Note: There is a minor bug with sorting when you provide a custom citation label. Custom labels are sorted according to the whole label and the four digit year. The other labels are sorted according to the author initials and the four digit year. So if your custom label includes a year already, there could theoretically be a small change in the sort order.

🗫 Comments

• 

  Wrong link?

  Anonymous (2018-01-29 05:59:38 EST)

  Thanks for your great work. As far as I can tell, the referenced BST file 20171114-bibtex-doi/halpha-abbrv.bst does not contain the necessary changes.

• 

  Re: Wrong link?

  Gautam Iyer (2018-01-29 15:03:46 EST)

  Oops. You’re right! I uploaded a new version now. Thanks for pointing it out.

• 

  great

  Anonymous (2018-10-10 06:05:12 EDT)

  Thanks for the great work man! I used this on the german version of alpha, geralpha, and it worked like a charm. Had been stuck on the problem of unusual reference labeling that my research institute requires for a while now, and this solved the problem in a few minutes.

• 

  Nice, but labels aren't sorted alphanumerically

  Anonymous (2019-10-30 07:00:45 EDT)

  The style is very nice. One gripe: I have labels such as RFC1 and RFC2, which I’d expect to appear in that order. However, the order is reversed when the latter is cited before the former. (Also, \bibliographystyle{habbrv} should be \bibliographystyle{halpha-abbrv}, or halpha-abbrv.bst should be renamed.)

• 

  Wide labels

  Anonymous (2019-10-30 07:05:41 EDT)

  Wide labels creep into the text (similarly to stackexchange), this can be manually fixed (as shown on tex.stackexchange) using

  \let\stdthebibliography\thebibliography
  \let\stdendthebibliography\endthebibliography
  \renewenvironment*{thebibliography}[1]{%
    \stdthebibliography{WideLabel99}}
    {\stdendthebibliography}
  

  repaying WideLabel99 with a suitably wide label.

• 

  Re: Nice, but labels aren't sorted alphanumerically

  Gautam Iyer (2019-11-01 11:21:30 EDT)

  The style is very nice. One gripe: I have labels such as RFC1 and RFC2, which I’d expect to appear in that order. However, the order is reversed when the latter is cited before the former.

  Yikes, true. I don’t know how to fix BibTeX sort issues unfortunately. I’ve had trouble with it in the past.

  (Also, \bibliographystyle{habbrv} should be \bibliographystyle{halpha-abbrv}, or halpha-abbrv.bst should be renamed.)

  Indeed, thanks. I fixed it.

  GI

• 

  thank you thank you thank you

  Anonymous (2019-12-15 17:07:52 EST)

  Your diff changed my… style!!! iam editing a more than 1500 entries bibliography in a French style of my own (obliged to customize aren’t we all) and what else can I say that i haven’t said in the object - thanks to you, labels are labelled, luv it ! For the sorting matter, since i prefer an author date type, i commented the sort label, and as we say in French, roule ma poule! Your obliged, V@

• 

  Indentation

  Love Lindholm (2021-09-15 11:32:18 EDT)

  Hello!

  Thank you for your BibTeX style!

  I have an issue with indentation: If my custom label is above a certain limit, the text of the BibTeX entry corresponding to that label starts with an indentation, i.e., it is not aligned with the start of the text for entries with shorter labels.

  Is this something you have noticed? I am not TeX-savvy enough to modify your bst-file.

  Kind regards Love

• 

  Re: Indentation

  Gautam Iyer (2021-09-15 12:51:04 EDT)

  So at the beginning of the .bib file produced by BibTeX theres a \begin{thebibliography}{XXX12}. Change this to \begin{thebibliography}{LONGESTLABEL} and you should be good.

• 

  Re: Indentation

  Love (2021-09-16 05:36:39 EDT)

  That works, thank you. However, it would be more satisfying not to have to do this manually :-) Could your bst-file be modified to take into account the lengths of the added labels?

• 

  Re: Indentation

  Gautam Iyer (2021-09-17 21:23:33 EDT)

  Indeed I agree that’s better; I took a quick look at the file and it looks like it should already be doing that. But it’s not… I’ll see if I can chase down the error soon

• 

  Re: Indentation

  Love (2021-09-29 08:10:54 EDT)

  Thank. Yes, it seemed as if the bst-file was doing that. But I don’t know the language well enough to work on it.

📮 Leave a comment (Spammers beware: All comments are moderated)