biblatex: Set citation options on a cite-by-cite basis

Question

Here's the deal: I have a biblatex bibliography with a prenote. The prenote contains a citation with a lot of authors. I want it to behave as if it were obeying maxnames=3. But I want my bibliography to behave as if maxnames=99. Is there a way to set the value of maxnames locally for that one citation?

More generally, is there a procedure for locally setting biblatex options?

Answer 1

This is the first time I encountered a citation command within the bibliography. Note: \defcounter (an etoolbox macro) instead of \setcounter allows for local redefinition of counters. (EDIT: I used the same hack in my answer to Adding an [AuthorYear] block at the beginning of bibliography entries .)

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[style=authoryear,maxnames=99,maxcitenames=3]{biblatex}

\newcounter{mymaxcitenames}
\AtBeginDocument{%
  \setcounter{mymaxcitenames}{\value{maxnames}}% i.e., 3 (!)
}

\defbibnote{recommended}{If you don't have time to read anything else, read
  \begingroup
  \defcounter{maxnames}{\value{mymaxcitenames}}%
  \textcite{A01}.%
  \endgroup
}

\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{biblatextest.bib}
@misc{A01,
  author = {Author, A. and Buthor, B., and Cuthor, C. and Duthor, D.},
  year = {2001},
  title = {Alpha},
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{biblatextest.bib}

\begin{document}

If you don't have time to read anything else, read \textcite{A01}.

\printbibliography[prenote=recommended]

\end{document}