# Symbols instead of foonotes numbers

I have already seen such questions here, but I need a different solution here. Could someone please explain me, how can I change numbers of my footnotes to the multiple symbols, e.g. *, **,*** etc. without creating errors and chaos in the .tex code?

Thank you!

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}
\item Hello, I am the first sentence!\footnote{Ummh.. Looks good with a text!}
\item $\forall n \in \mathbb{N} \ \exists m: n=2m\footnote{I am the second footnote, and not a$m^2$expression.} \lor n=2m+1$
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

• what's wrong about the answers provided there : tex.stackexchange.com/questions/826/… ? – user4686 Oct 10 '16 at 17:11
• @jfbu, the post in the link you presented has 5 answers. The 1. answer explains how to create footnotes with an optional parameter [num] that I do not need, as symbols can be programmed without packages. The 2. answer offers switches that I do not need. The 3. : I have only 3-4 footnotes per page and wil not use alphalph that offers AA AB etc... The 4: I do not understand your answer, @jfbu, as I ask myself what \makeatletter, \makeatother, \@addtoreset are, as much as why do you use \# and * for defining the command. The 5: counters are important, but it its an another question. – Kirill Oct 10 '16 at 17:39
• well, I see you have read them all ;-) the \# and * are arbitrary choices as mentioned in the answer. To use @ in control sequence names, one needs the \makeatletter/\makeatother. The \@addtoreset has a pretty self-explanatory name, and perhaps there is an interface without the @. As pointed out in a comment, the resetting of footnote counter as the page changes sometimes has glitches, due to the way TeX ships out pages. – user4686 Oct 10 '16 at 20:10

The typical symbol-like style of \footnotes are defined in the LaTeX kernel in the following way:

\def\@fnsymbol#1{%
\ifcase#1\or \TextOrMath\textasteriskcentered *\or
\TextOrMath \textdagger \dagger\or
\TextOrMath \textdaggerdbl \ddagger \or
\TextOrMath \textsection  \mathsection\or
\TextOrMath \textparagraph \mathparagraph\or
\TextOrMath \textbardbl \|\or
\TextOrMath {\textasteriskcentered\textasteriskcentered}{**}\or
\TextOrMath {\textdagger\textdagger}{\dagger\dagger}\or
\TextOrMath {\textdaggerdbl\textdaggerdbl}{\ddagger\ddagger}\else
\@ctrerr \fi
}%


When printing the footnote number, it conditions on the value of the counter using \ifcase, and each possible outcome is listed in the sequential order of the counter.

We can follow the same approach using *s:

\documentclass{article}

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\ifcase\value{footnote}
\or *% 1
\or **% 2
\or ***% 3
\or ****% 4
\or *****% 5
\or ******% 6
\or *******% 7
\or ********% 8
\or *********% 9
\else \arabic{footnote}\fi}

\begin{document}

\begin{itemize}
\item First item\footnote{First footnote}
\item Second item\footnote{Second footnote}
\item Third item\footnote{Third footnote}
\item Fourth item\footnote{Fourth footnote}
\item Fifth item\footnote{Fifth footnote}
\item Sixth item\footnote{Sixth footnote}
\item Seventh item\footnote{Seventh footnote}
\item Eighth item\footnote{Eighth footnote}
\item Ninth item\footnote{Ninth footnote}
\item Last item\footnote{Last footnote}
\end{itemize}

\end{document}


It does get a bit unwieldy for large footnote numbers, as the asterisks butt into the margin.

• Thank you very much, Werner! It looks grate! I have max. only 3-4 foonotes per page and use a lot of mathematics. I thought asterisks are the best choice for this. Could you please give me an advice about how could I get familiar with the kernel code you presented above? I can use LaTeX for my needs, but this code seems to be some kind of an alien language for me at the moment. Thank you! – Kirill Oct 10 '16 at 17:21
• @Kirill: The kernel would be daunting then. The code is documented (to some extent) in source2e.pdf. – Werner Oct 10 '16 at 17:24
• Did you mean 'butt' (the verb), instead of 'but' (the conjunction)? I changed it, but please make sure I got the meaning right. – jpaugh Oct 10 '16 at 21:50

I guess you want to use the footmisc package so the footnote “numbers” are reset at each page. Here I define a maximum of four footnotes for a page, using more will raise an error.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[a6paper]{geometry} % just for getting small pictures
\usepackage[perpage,symbol*]{footmisc}
\usepackage{amssymb}

\DefineFNsymbols*{asterisks}{{*}{**}{***}{****}}
\setfnsymbol{asterisks}

\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}
\item Hello, I am the first sentence!\footnote{Ummh.. Looks good with a text!}
\item $\forall n \in \mathbb{N}$ $\exists m: n=2m\footnote{I am the second footnote, and not a$m^2$expression.} \lor n=2m+1$
\end{itemize}
\newpage
\begin{itemize}
\item Hello, I am the first sentence!\footnote{Ummh.. Looks good with a text!}
\item $\forall n \in \mathbb{N}$ $\exists m: n=2m\footnote{I am the second footnote, and not a$m^2$expression.} \lor n=2m+1$
\end{itemize}
\end{document}


The usage of geometry is just to make small pictures for showing the output.

Side note. When you seem to need \<space> in a math formula, ask yourself if you actually have two formulas, like in this case. And, please, don't inflict footnotes in math mode to your readers: they're very ambiguous.