Is it possible to use parentheses with \citeA and square brackets with \cite in apacite?

Question

Usually citations use parentheses or square brackets in all cases. SBC (Brazilian Computer Society) has an odd case. Its style for references use parentheses everywhere, except when making parenthetical citations. In the case of parenthetical citations, one must use square brackets: [AuthorX 1999].

As an minimal working example:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{apacite}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
  @book{Knu86,
    author = {Knuth, Donald E.},
    year = 1986,
    title = {The \TeX book},
  }
\end{filecontents}

\begin{document}
\section{Demonstration} 

To adhere to SBC (Brazilian Computer Society) style:

This citation should be using square brackets:~\cite{Knu86}.

This should be using parentheses:~\citeA{Knu86}.

And this citation should be using square brackets:~\cite{Knu86}.

References should also be using parentheses!

\bibliographystyle{apacite}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}

How can I change only the \cite behavior of apacite to use square brackets, while maintaining all other apacite commands to still use parentheses?

Answer 1

You can modify the internal \@cite command so that it changes the brackets in just those cases.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{apacite}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
  @book{Knu86,
    author = {Knuth, Donald E.},
    year = 1986,
    title = {The {\TeX{ book},
  }}}
\end{filecontents}
%
\makeatletter
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\pretocmd{\@cite}{\def\@BBOP{[}\def\@BBCP{]}}{}{}
\makeatother

\makeatother

\begin{document}
\section{Demonstration} 

To adhere to SBC (Brazilian Computer Society) style:

This citation should be using square brackets:~\cite{Knu86}.

This should be using parentheses:~\citeA{Knu86}.

And this citation should be using square brackets:~\cite{Knu86}.

References should also be using parentheses!

\bibliographystyle{apacite}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}