how to use citenum without natbib

Question

I was wondering if I can use the \citenum{} command of natbib without actually using it. I prefer using \bibitem{} instead of .bib file. Any idea?

Answer 1

You can use natbib without needing to run BibTeX, and can then use \citenum

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[numbers]{natbib}
\begin{document}

\citenum{Other2013}

\begin{thebibliography}{1}
  \bibitem{Other2013}
    A.~N. Other, F. Bloggs and D. Nobacon, \emph{J.~Irrep. Res.}, 2013,
    1--10.   
\end{thebibliography}
\end{document}

To get the best out of natbib you need to use the extended \bibitem format that it works with, which includes the full author details:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[numbers]{natbib}
\begin{document}

\citenum{Other2013}

\begin{thebibliography}{1}
  \bibitem[Other \emph{et al.}(2013)Other, Bloggs and Nobacon]{Other2013}
    A.~N. Other, F. Bloggs and D. Nobacon, \emph{J.~Irrep. Res.}, 2013,
    1--10.   
\end{thebibliography}
\end{document}

Answer 2

With the following, you can use both the standard \cite and \citenum, and the (in my opinion most important) feature sort&compress works as well:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[numbers,square,sort&compress]{natbib}

\makeatletter
\let\oldbibitem\bibitem
\newcounter{bibstep}
\def\bibitem{\stepcounter{bibstep}\@ifnextchar[\oldbibitem{\oldbibitem[A(\arabic{bibstep})]}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\cite{cite:1,cite:20,cite:7,cite:2}, \citenum{cite:1}, \cite[chap. 3]{cite:26}

\begin{thebibliography}{10}

\bibitem{cite:2}
{\sc {Abiteboul}, S.}
\newblock A deployment of 16 bit architectures using {RETTE}.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of the {Workshop} on {Data} {Mining} and
  {Knowledge} {Discovery}\/} (Oct. 2003).

\bibitem{cite:17}
{\sc {Agarwal}, R., {Stearns}, R., {Harichandran}, K., {Wirth}, N., {Lee}, B.,
  and {Nehru}, R.}
\newblock A construction of {IPv7} using {\em {lustrumlin}}.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Robust, Perfect Methodologies 91\/} (June 1993),
  20--24.

\bibitem{cite:12}
{\sc {Anderson}, R., and {Sasaki}, a.}
\newblock Decoupling {a}* search from the memory bus in 802.11b.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of the {Workshop} on Cacheable, Relational
  Theory\/} (June 1990).

\bibitem{cite:4}
{\sc {Clark}, D., XX, XX, {Rivest}, R., and {Li}, M.}
\newblock A case for the producer-consumer problem.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of the {Workshop} on Empathic, Perfect
  Epistemologies\/} (Jan. 1992).

\bibitem{cite:14}
{\sc {Cook}, S.}
\newblock The {UNIVAC} computer considered harmful.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of the {Workshop} on Robust Archetypes\/} (July
  2003).

\bibitem{cite:6}
{\sc {Culler}, D., and {Zhao}, F.}
\newblock Towards the simulation of redundancy.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of {SIGGRAPH}\/} (May 2002).

\bibitem{cite:10}
{\sc {Culler}, D., {Zheng}, O., {Wilson}, Z.~I., and {Chomsky}, N.}
\newblock Analyzing the producer-consumer problem and {RPCs} with {REW}.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of {Automated} {Reasoning} 99\/} (Sept. 2005), 77--97.

\bibitem{cite:15}
{\sc {Davis}, C., and {Ashwin}, U.}
\newblock Studying rasterization and linked lists using {UppentWapp}.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of {NSDI}\/} (Nov. 2003).

\bibitem{cite:28}
{\sc {Davis}, H.}
\newblock Knowledge-based archetypes for object-oriented languages.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of {SIGGRAPH}\/} (Dec. 2001).

\bibitem{cite:16}
{\sc {Davis}, J., and {Hoare}, C. A.~R.}
\newblock Deconstructing digital-to-analog converters with {Fur}.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of {INFOCOM}\/} (Sept. 1997).

\bibitem{cite:7}
{\sc {Feigenbaum}, E., {Takahashi}, X., {Milner}, R., and {Corbato}, F.}
\newblock Constructing architecture and web browsers.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Ambimorphic, Cooperative Communication 68\/} (June
  2002), 45--53.

\bibitem{cite:20}
{\sc {Gray}, J.}
\newblock Decoupling {I/O} automata from the {UNIVAC} computer in context- free
  grammar.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Reliable, Constant-Time Symmetries 28\/} (July
  1999), 71--87.

\bibitem{cite:1}
{\sc {Hennessy}, J., {Jacobson}, V., and {Backus}, J.}
\newblock Deconstructing the location-identity split.
\newblock {\em {TOCS} 8\/} (May 2002), 20--24.

\bibitem{cite:24}
{\sc {Karp}, R., and {Lamport}, L.}
\newblock Cooperative, classical models for {XML}.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Trainable, Encrypted Symmetries 35\/} (Oct. 2001),
  74--91.

\bibitem{cite:22}
{\sc {Nygaard}, K.}
\newblock Deploying reinforcement learning and the memory bus using {CRATE}.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of the {Workshop} on Certifiable, Empathic
  Symmetries\/} (Feb. 2005).

\bibitem{cite:23}
{\sc {Nygaard}, K., and {Quinlan}, J.}
\newblock Deconstructing {RAID}.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Collaborative, {Bayesian} Epistemologies 2\/} (July
  2004), 76--95.

\bibitem{cite:11}
{\sc {Patterson}, D.}
\newblock {Mason}: Empathic, interposable epistemologies.
\newblock {\em {TOCS} 49\/} (Nov. 1999), 154--193.

\bibitem{cite:19}
{\sc {Qian}, W.}
\newblock Decoupling {IPv7} from simulated annealing in extreme programming.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Unstable Modalities 2\/} (May 2000), 1--14.

\bibitem{cite:13}
{\sc {Shenker}, S.}
\newblock Architecting systems using peer-to-peer archetypes.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Introspective, Pervasive, Random Symmetries 46\/}
  (June 1993), 52--64.

\bibitem{cite:0}
{\sc {Sutherland}, I., and {Anderson}, O.}
\newblock Deconstructing {B-Trees}.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Lossless, Interactive Archetypes 40\/} (Sept.
  2003), 1--10.

\bibitem{cite:25}
{\sc {Takahashi}, J., and {Wilkinson}, J.}
\newblock {I/O} automata considered harmful.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of {PLDI}\/} (Sept. 2003).

\bibitem{cite:8}
{\sc {Tanenbaum}, A.}
\newblock Simulating {a}* search and the producer-consumer problem using
  {Canoe}.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of {MICRO}\/} (Dec. 2001).

\bibitem{cite:27}
{\sc {Taylor}, P.}
\newblock {SICCA}: Significant unification of write-ahead logging and agents.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Certifiable Algorithms 650\/} (June 2005), 1--19.

\bibitem{cite:5}
{\sc {Turing}, A.}
\newblock A case for lambda calculus.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Omniscient, Adaptive Methodologies 87\/} (Aug.
  2004), 75--83.

\bibitem{cite:26}
{\sc {Watanabe}, P.}
\newblock A case for operating systems.
\newblock Tech. Rep. 1146/3851, {UT} {Austin}, June 1991.

\bibitem{cite:18}
{\sc {Welsh}, M.}
\newblock Simulating architecture using interposable theory.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of the {Workshop} on Flexible, Permutable,
  Secure Models\/} (May 2005).

\bibitem{cite:9}
{\sc {Welsh}, M., {Lampson}, B., and {Garey}, M.}
\newblock Studying superpages and access points using {Seg}.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Wireless, Trainable Theory 49\/} (Jan. 2002),
  158--191.

\bibitem{cite:3}
{\sc XX}.
\newblock A methodology for the development of superpages.
\newblock {\em {Journal} of Replicated, Reliable Algorithms 96\/} (Sept. 2003),
  157--196.

\bibitem{cite:21}
{\sc {Zhou}, D.}
\newblock Deconstructing {Internet} {QoS} using {JougsSacrum}.
\newblock In {\em {Proceedings} of {OSDI}\/} (Apr. 2004).

\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}

Thanks SCIgen for the example bibliography.