Different abbreviation options for the same acronym in glossary

Question

I want to be able to have an acronym in glossary, which when referred to with \gls{} would appear in the main text in a standard form, unless specified otherwise.

I.e. i have the following acronyms:

\newacronym{a1}{A1}{Apples 1}
\newacronym{a2}{A2}{Apples 2}

I am writing about two types of apples, A1 and A2. But i am mostly interested in A1, so i just want them to be abbreviated as A from now on. So i guess i'm looking whether something like the following exists:

\newacronym{a1}{A}{A1}{Apples 1}
\gls{a1}

(abbreviation appears as A)

\gls{a1}[version2]

(abbreviation appears as A1).

Are there any standard options in glossary for this?

Answer 1

There are several methods that I can think of.

1. Just the base glossaries package.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[style=tree]{glossaries}

\makeglossaries

\setacronymstyle{long-short}
\newacronym{a}{A}{Apples}
\newacronym[parent=a]{a1}{A1}{Apples 1}
\newacronym[parent=a]{a2}{A2}{Apples 2}

\begin{document}
First use: \gls{a1}, \gls{a2}, \gls{a}.

Next use: \gls{a1}, \gls{a2}, \gls{a}.

\printglossaries
\end{document}

This establishes a hierarchical set of abbreviations:

The \gls{a} reference links to the parent entry in the list.

2. The glossaries-extra extension package.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[style=tree]{glossaries-extra}

\makeglossaries

\setabbreviationstyle[acronym]{long-short}

\newacronym{a1}{A1}{Apples 1}
\newacronym{a2}{A2}{Apples 2}

\newglossaryentry{a}{name={A},description={Apples},alias={a1}}

\begin{document}
First use: \gls{a1}, \gls{a2}, \gls{a}.

Next use: \gls{a1}, \gls{a2}, \gls{a}.

\printglossaries
\end{document}

This uses the alias key that makes the hyperlink for \gls{a} go to the target for a1. The aliased entry is listed in the glossary with a cross-reference:

The first use of \gls{a} doesn't show the full form as it's not an abbreviation. It can be an abbreviation if you prefer:

\newacronym[alias=a1]{a}{A}{Apples}

If you don't want the aliased term to appear at all in the list, you can create an ignored glossary and assign it to that:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[style=tree]{glossaries-extra}

\makeglossaries

\setabbreviationstyle[acronym]{long-short}

\newacronym{a1}{A1}{Apples 1}
\newacronym{a2}{A2}{Apples 2}

\newignoredglossary*{ignored}
\newglossaryentry{a}{name={A},description={Apples},alias={a1},type=ignored}

\begin{document}
First use: \gls{a1}, \gls{a2}, \gls{a}.

Next use: \gls{a1}, \gls{a2}, \gls{a}.

\printglossaries
\end{document}

The \gls{a} reference links to the main glossary even though a is in an ignored glossary that doesn't show up with \printglossaries.

3. The glossaries-extra extension package and bib2gls.

This assigns a post-link hook for the aliased entry (which now has the category label aliased) so that on first use it will show both terms.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@acronym{a1,
  short={A1},
  long={Apples 1}
}
@acronym{a2,
  short={A2},
  long={Apples 2}
}
@index{a,
  name={A},
  alias={a1},
  seealso={a1,a2},
  category={aliased}
}
\end{filecontents*}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[style=tree,record]{glossaries-extra}

\setabbreviationstyle[acronym]{long-short}

\GlsXtrLoadResources[
  src={\jobname}% entries in \jobname.bib
]

\glsdefpostlink{aliased}{%
 \glsxtrifwasfirstuse
 {%
   \glsxtrifhasfield{seealso}{\glslabel}%
   {%
     \let\DTLlistformatitem\glsxtrlong
     \space(\DTLformatlist{\glscurrentfieldvalue})%
   }%
   {}%
 }%
 {}%
}

\begin{document}
First use: \gls{a1}, \gls{a2}, \gls{a}.

Next use: \gls{a1}, \gls{a2}, \gls{a}.

\renewcommand{\printunsrtglossaryentryprocesshook}[1]{%
  \glsxtrifhasfield*{alias}{#1}{\printunsrtglossaryskipentry}{}%
}
\printunsrtglossaries
\end{document}

Instead of creating an ignored glossary, I've redefined the hook used by \printunsrtglossary to skip any entry that has the alias field set.

The command \glsdefpostlink was new to glossaries-extra v1.31. If you have an older version you can change:

\glsdefpostlink{aliased}{%

to:

\newcommand{\glsxtrpostlinkaliased}{%

Here's a minor variation that includes a description for the aliased entry:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@acronym{a1,
  short={A1},
  long={Apples 1}
}
@acronym{a2,
  short={A2},
  long={Apples 2}
}
@entry{a,
  name={A},
  description={Apples},
  alias={a1},
  seealso={a1,a2},
  category={aliased}
}
\end{filecontents*}

\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[style=tree,record]{glossaries-extra}

\setabbreviationstyle[acronym]{long-short}

\GlsXtrLoadResources[
  src={\jobname}% entries in \jobname.bib
]

\glsdefpostlink{aliased}{%
 \glsxtrifwasfirstuse
 {%
   \space(\glsentrydesc{\glslabel}%
     \glsxtrifhasfield{seealso}{\glslabel}%
     {%
       \let\DTLlistformatitem\glsxtrlong
       :\space\DTLformatlist{\glscurrentfieldvalue}%
     }%
     {}%
   )%
 }%
 {}%
}

\begin{document}
First use: \gls{a1}, \gls{a2}, \gls{a}.

Next use: \gls{a1}, \gls{a2}, \gls{a}.

\renewcommand{\printunsrtglossaryentryprocesshook}[1]{%
  \glsxtrifhasfield*{alias}{#1}{\printunsrtglossaryskipentry}{}%
}
\printunsrtglossaries
\end{document}