Adding parentheses around subfig references

Question

Say I have a figure with two subfloats inserted using the subfig package. When I reference them with \ref{myLabel} I get this

Figure 3.5a and 3.5b.

But what I want is this:

Figure 3.5(a) and 3.5(b).

How can I add the parentheses?

Answer 1

For the subfig package see sections 2.2.2 and 3 of the documentation.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[subrefformat=parens,labelformat=parens]{subfig}

\begin{document}
See Figure~\subref*{sf1} for more information.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\subfloat[Subfig 1]{\label{sf1} Contents of the sub-figure}
\qquad
\subfloat[Subfig 2]{\label{sf2} Contents of the sub-figure}
\caption{A figure}
\label{fig}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

---

(Original answer)
Assuming you're using the subfloat package, section 4 of its documentation indicates you can do something like:

\renewcommand*\thesubfloatfigure{\themainfigure(\alph{subfloatfigure})}

to put the sub-number in parentheses.

Answer 2

If anyone came across this question and is using subcaption, here is a solution (borrowed from its excelent manual):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[labelformat=simple]{subcaption}
\renewcommand\thesubfigure{(\alph{subfigure})}

\begin{document}
Reference the sub-figure in full form: \ref{sf1}.
Referencing just the sub-figure parts: \subref{sf1} and \subref{sf2}.
\begin{figure}
  \begin{subfigure}{.48\textwidth}
    \centering
    Contents of the sub-figure
    \caption{Subfig 1}
    \label{sf1}
  \end{subfigure}
  \begin{subfigure}{.48\textwidth}
    \centering
    Contents of the sub-figure
    \caption{Subfig 2}
    \label{sf2}
  \end{subfigure}
  \caption{A figure}
  \label{fig}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Answer 3

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{subfig}

\begin{document}
See Figure~\ref{fig}\subref{sf1} for more information.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\subfloat[Subfig 1]{\label{sf1} Contents of the sub-figure}
\qquad
\subfloat[Subfig 2]{\label{sf2} Contents of the sub-figure}
\caption{A figure}
\label{fig}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Answer 4

The [subrefformat=parens,labelformat=parens] options didn't work for me; the references still came out as, e.g., "1b". I had to use

\usepackage[caption=false,labelformat=simple]{subfig}
\renewcommand{\thesubfigure}{(\alph{subfigure})}

(I had to use caption=false because without it subfig makes the captions in my document class come out in the wrong style.) Does this seem all right to use? I did discover that under my way, you have to use \subref*, not \subref, if you want to auto-refer to something like "(a)" (with \subref you get "((a))").

Looking at the other answer again, I think I needed to do it this way because I had been using \ref for all my references to things like "Figure 1b". (I'd rather not change all my \ref's to \subref*'s if I can avoid it.)

Answer 5

Combining ideas from some of the other answers, this is what works best for me:

\usepackage[caption=false,listofformat=subsimple,labelformat=simple]{subfig}
\renewcommand\thesubfigure{(\alph{subfigure})}

The line with \renewcommand now makes \ref work as I want, namely 1(a), so there is no need to use \subref* as in other solutions above.

This has now added double brackets in various places, which have to be removed. \labelformat=simple removes them from the subfigures, so these are now displayed as (a).

\listofformat=subsimple removes the double brackets from \listoffigures (which is only visible with \setcounter{lofdepth}{2}) and from \subref. So now I can use \subref if I just want (a).

caption=false is used because caption is incompatible with revtex, which is my class file, but shouldn't have any impact on the problem at hand.