Citations with names instead of numbers

Question

Let's say I have an entry in my bibliography that looks like

@book{BOSCH,
    Author = {Bosch and Lutkebohmert and Raynaud},
    Publisher = {Springer},
    Title = {N{\'e}ron Models},
    Year = {1990}}

When I cite it using \cite{BOSCH} I get [1] in the PDF.

I would like, instead, to get [BOSCH]. Is this possible?

Answer 1

EDIT

A shorter solution is to modify the alphabetic style. Just force the label to be set to citekey.

\DeclareLabelalphaTemplate{
  \labelelement{
    \field[final]{citekey}
  }
}

And we're done.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[british]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[backend=biber,url=true,style=alphabetic]{biblatex}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\DeclareLabelalphaTemplate{
  \labelelement{
    \field[final]{citekey}
  }
}

\begin{document}
  \cite{wilde,westfahl:space}
  \printbibliography
\end{document}

---

Initial solution

You might like this slight modification of the numeric style.

We make the cite bibmacro just print the entrykey.

\DeclareFieldFormat{key}{#1}
\renewbibmacro*{cite}{%
  \printtext[bibhyperref]{\printfield[key]{entrykey}}}

We also have to redefine the bibliography.

\defbibenvironment{bibliography}
  {\list
     {\printtext[labelnumberwidth]{%
        \printfield[key]{entrykey}}}
     {\setlength{\labelwidth}{\labelnumberwidth}%
      \setlength{\leftmargin}{\labelwidth}%
      \setlength{\labelsep}{\biblabelsep}%
      \addtolength{\leftmargin}{\labelsep}%
      \setlength{\itemsep}{\bibitemsep}%
      \setlength{\parsep}{\bibparsep}}%
      \renewcommand*{\makelabel}[1]{\hss##1}}
  {\endlist}
  {\item}

I can't help but feel that the label width thing could be improved, but for very long labels that could also go awry.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[british]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[backend=biber,url=true,style=numeric]{biblatex}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\defbibenvironment{bibliography}
  {\list
     {\printtext[labelnumberwidth]{%
        \printfield[key]{entrykey}}}
     {\setlength{\labelwidth}{\labelnumberwidth}%
      \setlength{\leftmargin}{\labelwidth}%
      \setlength{\labelsep}{\biblabelsep}%
      \addtolength{\leftmargin}{\labelsep}%
      \setlength{\itemsep}{\bibitemsep}%
      \setlength{\parsep}{\bibparsep}}%
      \renewcommand*{\makelabel}[1]{\hss##1}}
  {\endlist}
  {\item}

\DeclareFieldFormat{key}{#1}
\renewbibmacro*{cite}{%
  \printtext[bibhyperref]{\printfield[key]{entrykey}}}

\begin{document}
  \cite{wilde,westfahl:space}
  \printbibliography
\end{document}