3

What characters are valid in a biblatex entry key?

I'm asking because Zotero will export entry keys with <i>foo</i> in them, and pandoc-citeproc doesn't like that. But I don't know whether Zotero is too permissive, or pandoc-citeproc is too strict.

This is the error that pandoc-citeproc generates with an entry key like that:

pandoc-citeproc: "stdin" (line 10918, column 2):
unexpected "A"
expecting "c", "C", "p", "P", "s" or "S"
CallStack (from HasCallStack):
  error, called at src/Text/CSL/Input/Bibtex.hs:113:32 in pandoc-citeproc-0.10.4-BdOyQb33rzG2TMOLj4Fbp9:Text.CSL.Input.Bibtex
pandoc: Error running filter pandoc-citeproc
Filter returned error status 1
Improve this question
2
  • 3
    biblatex accepts <i>foo</i> as a bibkey with Biber and BibTeX as a backend. So the problem must lie elsewhere. In general you should try and use only ASCII letters and numbers as well as a few special characters such as -, ., :, _. Avoid non-ASCII letters (ä, ß, É) - even if they might work if you use an engine with full Unicode support and Biber. You should also avoid commas as well as braces (curly and otherwise).
    – moewe
    Aug 27 '17 at 18:54
  • 5
    For future reference, we removed html markup in citekeys in bibtex export from Zotero a while ago and it's an oversight that it remains in biblatex. We'll fix that, even if it may take a little time. See forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/284813/#Comment_284813 for discussion.
    – adam.smith
    Aug 27 '17 at 21:25
7

An entry key may contain <, > and / if you use biblatex no matter if you use the legacy BibTeX backend or Biber. So <i>foo</i> is acceptable as part of a entry key.

In general, however, it is a good idea to only use ASCII letters (lowercase a-z and uppercase A-Z; keep in mind that the names are case sensitive), digits and a few special characters such as ., -, :, _, /.

If you use a fully Unicode-aware TeX engine such as XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX your entry keys may also contain non-ASCII letters (with diacritics, from other scripts etc.) such as é, ß, Ä.

A key may never contain a comma (,) or braces or brackets (curly {, } or round (, )).

Improve this answer
1

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.