# Why does \renewcommand{\dagger}{*} not apply to \thanks?

I know that I can adjust my \thanks symbols by overriding fnsymbols as described here: Customizing the symbol next to the author's name in a document

But it seems to me that just re-defining the dagger should also work:

\documentclass{article}
\renewcommand{\dagger}{*}
\title{Test}
\author{Author 1\thanks{Thanks 1} \and Author 2\thanks{I-should-be-next-to-an-asterisk}}

\begin{document}

\maketitle
Here the dagger is replaced correctly: $\dagger$
\end{document}


Which correctly replaces the dagger with an asterisk in the main text, but not in the title:

What does wrong here? I tried moving the renewcommand up or down, to now avail.

The default footnote symbol uses \textdagger not \dagger. As your example shows, \dagger is a math mode command.

• How did you find that out? The definition in tex.stackexchange.com/questions/455140/… suggests that it's \dagger, not \textdagger. Mar 26 '19 at 20:40
• @bonifaz I have been maintaining the latex sources since 1993, I have some idea about some of the definitions:-) Mar 26 '19 at 20:41
• I see, makes sense :-) I was just curious how I could find out myself in the future. Mar 26 '19 at 20:46

From the command line (> represents the prompt) you can issue

> latexdef -s fnsymbol
% latex.ltx, line 2234:
\def\fnsymbol#1{\expandafter\@fnsymbol\csname c@#1\endcsname}


OK, we need to know what \@fnsymbol does:

> latexdef -s @fnsymbol
% latex.ltx, line 2254:
\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
}%


This means that if \fnsymbol appears in text mode, it associates \textdagger for the number 2.

For the specific application you might consider to redefine \@fnsymbol, so as not to redefine \textdagger.

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\let\latex@fnsymbol\@fnsymbol
\renewcommand\@fnsymbol[1]{\ifcase#1\or*\or*\else\@ctrerr\fi}
\newcommand{\restorefnsymbol}{\let\@fnsymbol\latex@fnsymbol}
\makeatother

\setlength{\textheight}{7cm} % just to make a smaller picture

\begin{document}

\title{Test}
\author{Author 1\thanks{Thanks 1} \and
Author 2\thanks{I-should-be-next-to-an-asterisk}}

\maketitle
\restorefnsymbol

Here we have a dagger: $\dagger$

\end{document}


• Thanks for the in-depth answer!! Definitely useful to understand the background in the future. Mar 26 '19 at 21:22