BibLaTeX: How can I remove the comma after "school" in @thesis entry?

Question

I want to remove the comma between the "school" field and the date (year) in an @thesis bibliography entry:

Here is my minimal example code:

\documentclass{minimal}

\usepackage{ngerman}
\usepackage[backend = biber, style = numeric]{biblatex}

%%%%%%%% https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/492917

\newtoggle{bbx:datemissing}

\renewbibmacro*{date}{\toggletrue{bbx:datemissing}%}

\renewbibmacro{volume+number+eid}{%
  \printfield{volume}%
  \setunit{\addcomma\space}%
  \printfield{eid}}

\renewbibmacro*{issue+date}{%
  \toggletrue{bbx:datemissing}%
  \iffieldundef{issue}{}{
    \printtext[parens]{%
    \printfield{issue}}}%
  \newunit}

\newbibmacro*{date:print}{%
  \togglefalse{bbx:datemissing}%
  \printdate}

\renewbibmacro*{chapter+pages}{%
  \printfield{chapter}%
  \setunit{\bibpagespunct}%
  \printfield{pages}%
  \newunit
  \usebibmacro{date:print}%
  \newunit}

\renewbibmacro*{note+pages}{%
  \printfield{note}%
  \setunit{\bibpagespunct}%
  \printfield{pages}%
  \newunit
  \usebibmacro{date:print}%
  \newunit}

%%%%%%%%

%%% This is what I came up with
\renewbibmacro{institution+location+date}{%
  \printlist{location}%
  \iflistundef{institution}{%
    \setunit*{\space}%
  }{%
    \setunit*{\addcolon\space}%
  }%
  \printlist{institution}%
  \setunit*{\space}%
  \usebibmacro{date}%
  \newunit%
}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{lit.bib}
  @thesis {mythesis,
    author = {Me, I.},
    school = {University},
    title = {Sometitle},
    type = {Phd thesis},
    year = {123}
  }  
\end{filecontents*}

\addbibresource{lit.bib}

\begin{document}
\printbibliography
\end{document}
\nocite{*}

I already tried \renewbibmacro{institution+location+date}{...}, but that did not work. I am quite new to BibLaTeX.

My thought was that the numeric style uses the entry types from standard, which is from where I copied the macro and removed all commas. However, that clearly did not work. How can I remove this comma?

Answer 1

You can add \nopunct just before the \newunit of your redefined institution+location+date macro. I've changed the document class of your example to article. Despite its name, the minimal document class should not be used for MWEs since it is in fact too minimal. I've also removed the filecontents package, which is now part of the LaTeX kernel.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{ngerman}
\usepackage[backend = biber, style = numeric]{biblatex}

\newtoggle{bbx:datemissing}

\renewbibmacro*{date}{\toggletrue{bbx:datemissing}}

\renewbibmacro{volume+number+eid}{%
  \printfield{volume}%
  \setunit{\addcomma\space}%
  \printfield{eid}}

\renewbibmacro*{issue+date}{%
  \toggletrue{bbx:datemissing}%
  \iffieldundef{issue}{}{
    \printtext[parens]{%
    \printfield{issue}}}%
  \newunit}

\newbibmacro*{date:print}{%
  \togglefalse{bbx:datemissing}%
  \printdate}

\renewbibmacro*{chapter+pages}{%
  \printfield{chapter}%
  \setunit{\bibpagespunct}%
  \printfield{pages}%
  \newunit
  \usebibmacro{date:print}%
  \newunit}

\renewbibmacro*{note+pages}{%
  \printfield{note}%
  \setunit{\bibpagespunct}%
  \printfield{pages}%
  \newunit
  \usebibmacro{date:print}%
  \newunit}
%%% This is what I came up with
\renewbibmacro{institution+location+date}{%
  \printlist{location}%
  \iflistundef{institution}{%
    \setunit*{\space}%
  }{%
    \setunit*{\space}%
  }%
  \printlist{institution}%
  \setunit*{\space}%
  \usebibmacro{date}%
  \nopunct\newunit%
}

\begin{filecontents*}[overwrite]{\jobname.bib}
  @thesis {mythesis,
    author = {Me, I.},
    school = {University of Somewhere},
    title = {Sometitle},
    type = {Phd thesis},
    year = {1980}
  }  
\end{filecontents*}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Answer 2

The answer to Change the order of the pages and year in Biblatex, whose code you are using, uses quite blunt instruments to move the date printing after pages. This may not be exactly what you want or need in all situations.

Here is a slightly more complex setup that moves the date only if there are pages (or a chapter), which may result in an output that works slightly better for you in some situations.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=numeric]{biblatex}

\newtoggle{bbx:datesuppressed}

\renewbibmacro*{date}{%
  \ifboolexpr{
        test {\iffieldundef{pages}}
    and test {\iffieldundef{chapter}}}
    {\printdate}
    {\toggletrue{bbx:datesuppressed}}}

\renewbibmacro{volume+number+eid}{%
  \printfield{volume}%
  \setunit{\addcomma\space}%
  \printfield{eid}}

\renewbibmacro*{issue+date}{%
  \toggletrue{bbx:datesuppressed}%
  \iffieldundef{issue}
    {}
    {\printtext[parens]{%
       \printfield{issue}}}%
  \newunit}

\newbibmacro*{date:print}{%
  \iftoggle{bbx:datesuppressed}
    {\togglefalse{bbx:datesuppressed}%
     \printdate}
    {}}

\renewbibmacro*{chapter+pages}{%
  \printfield{chapter}%
  \setunit{\bibpagespunct}%
  \printfield{pages}%
  \newunit
  \usebibmacro{date:print}%
  \newunit}

\renewbibmacro*{note+pages}{%
  \printfield{note}%
  \setunit{\bibpagespunct}%
  \printfield{pages}%
  \newunit
  \usebibmacro{date:print}%
  \newunit}

\renewbibmacro{institution+location+date}{%
  \printlist{location}%
  \iflistundef{institution}
    {\setunit*{\space}}
    {\setunit*{\addcolon\space}}%
  \printlist{institution}%
  \setunit*{\space}%
  \usebibmacro{date}%
  \newunit
}

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@phdthesis{mythesis,
  author = {Me, I.},
  school = {University},
  title  = {Sometitle},
  year   = {123},
}  
\end{filecontents*}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
\nocite{mythesis,sigfridsson,westfahl:space}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

As Alan explained in the comments under his answer, biblatex's punctuation handling is asynchronous: Punctuation is stored in a buffer and only printed once it is needed (i.e. when the next \print... command actually prints something). Since in the code in the question the \usebibmacro{date} in institution+location+date doesn't actually print the date, the \setunit before it does not ultimately control the punctuation before the date. The date is only printed by date:print in chapter+pages, at which point other \setunit commands will have added different punctuation into the buffer.

\nopunct sets a permanent marker not to print any punctuation until new content/text is printed by a \print... command. In this case it helps to suppress the undesired period. Since \nopunct can be used inside and outside the punctuation tracker it is a handy tool to tweak punctuation, but I generally try to avoid it and prefer solutions not using it, as it can have effects that go beyond what is desired.