Reference sorting within the .bst file

Question

I am using a master thesis template which was prepared from my university. But when I compile my thesis, the references are sorting alphabetically instead of by appearance in the document. I have one .bst file. But I couldn't find any clue about "sorting" or "ordering" in the .bst file. So how could I change the sorting from alphabetically to appearance order in the file from my .bst file ?

Answer 1

Sorting of the references is indeed controlled by the bst file. This is not something that you should be changing separately: Choose a bst file that is suited for (presumably) numeric citation style, and it will almost certainly sort by order of citation. (If you're using the name-year citation style, you should be sorting your references alphabetically as well). If you otherwise like the looks of the style you have, identify it here and ask about look-alikes.

PS. bst files are written in a strange stack language that I recommend you don't bother with. Unless you have a very strange style, you'll find the sort command about 30 lines from the bottom of the file. It looks like this:

SORT

Answer 2

Your bibtex style seems to be an older makebst style, so probably you are using the natbib package. To get entries sorted by order of citation, use the unsrtnat style. Further options are unsrt, and unsrturl.

Edit Looking closer at the style file you provided, there really is no sorting going on, so you should get your references in order of citation. I tried

\documentclass{article}
\providecommand{\bolum}{Chapter }

\begin{document}
\cite{incollection-minimal}
\cite{inbook-minimal}
\cite{article-minimal}

\bibliographystyle{Yirmidokuz}  % that is the style file you provided
\bibliography{xampl}  % this is an example bibliography that is contained in all TeX distributions
\end{document}

and got:

As you can see, the references are in order of citation. Are you sure that you use the style file you provided?