This is an improved and corrected version of koleygr's answer. It allows you to intermix two series of footnotes. Use \footnote
to get the next numbered footnote (1, 2, 3, ...). Use \symfootnote
to get the next symbolic footnote (*, †, ‡, ...). You can freely use \label
and \ref
in the usual way to refer to both kinds of footnotes.
Just for fun, I have included a line (starting with \ifnum
) that wraps around to the start of the *, †, ‡, ... series if you've already used up the 9 symbols in it.
\newcounter{savefootnote}
\newcounter{symfootnote}
\newcommand{\symfootnote}[1]{%
\setcounter{savefootnote}{\value{footnote}}%
\setcounter{footnote}{\value{symfootnote}}%
\ifnum\value{footnote}>8\setcounter{footnote}{0}\fi%
\let\oldthefootnote=\thefootnote%
\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\fnsymbol{footnote}}%
\footnote{#1}%
\let\thefootnote=\oldthefootnote%
\setcounter{symfootnote}{\value{footnote}}%
\setcounter{footnote}{\value{savefootnote}}%
}
Your question is a bit more complicated, because your table uses lettered footnotes (a, b, c, ...). This is probably because it falls within a minipage. Within that environment, the \footnote
command uses the separate mpfootnote
counter (which it sets to zero at the start of the environment). So below is a more complete solution that makes everything work in the minipage environment, too. This is the same as my previous solution, but now each line that refers to counters gives two commands. The first command deals with the ordinary counters, and the second command deals with their minipage counterparts. (Two commands per line is not normally good style, but in this case it shows the structure of what's going on and may be easier to maintain.)
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\newcounter{savefootnote}\newcounter{savempfootnote}
\newcounter{symfootnote}\newcounter{symmpfootnote}
\AtBeginEnvironment{minipage}{\setcounter{symmpfootnote}{0}}
\newcommand{\symfootnote}[1]{%
\setcounter{savefootnote}{\value{footnote}}\setcounter{savempfootnote}{\value{mpfootnote}}%
\setcounter{footnote}{\value{symfootnote}}\setcounter{mpfootnote}{\value{symmpfootnote}}%
\ifnum\value{footnote}>8\setcounter{footnote}{0}\fi\ifnum\value{mpfootnote}>8\setcounter{mpfootnote}{0}\fi%
\let\oldthefootnote=\thefootnote\let\oldthempfootnote=\thempfootnote%
\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\fnsymbol{footnote}}\renewcommand{\thempfootnote}{\fnsymbol{mpfootnote}}%
\footnote{#1}%
\let\thefootnote=\oldthefootnote\let\thempfootnote=\oldthempfootnote%
\setcounter{symfootnote}{\value{footnote}}\setcounter{symmpfootnote}{\value{mpfootnote}}%
\setcounter{footnote}{\value{savefootnote}}\setcounter{mpfootnote}{\value{savempfootnote}}%
}