Configuring `biblatex` to put brackets around the year in citations

Question

In a previous topic (Biblatex authoryear in brackets and with parenthesis around the year), it has been asked how to put the year in brackets when using authoryear citation in biblatex. When I apply the solution to my code, I get no space between each label and the next

One way to solve this is to modify the code in the previous question to include ;<space> after the command \usebibmacro{cite:shorthand}} (see the original question). This pretty much solves it

One last thing that I need is to remove the last delimiter because it should not be there since it is attached to the last label.

\begin{filecontents*}{sample.bib}
    @ARTICLE{wu2017,
        title={{Assessing Impact of Renewable Energy Integration on System Strength Using Site-Dependent Short Circuit Ratio}},
        author={Wu, Di and Li, Gangan and Javadi, Milad and Malyscheff, Alexander M and Hong, Mingguo and Jiang, John Ning},
        journal={IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy},
        year={2017},
        publisher={IEEE}
    }
    @article{wu2019method,
        title={A method to identify weak points of interconnection of renewable energy resources},
        author={Wu, Di and Aldaoudeyeh, Al~Motasem and Javadi, Milad and Ma, Feng and Tan, Jin and Jiang, John N and others},
        journal={International Journal of Electrical Power \& Energy Systems},
        volume={110},
        pages={72--82},
        year={2019},
        publisher={Elsevier}
    }
    @INPROCEEDINGS{zhu2015,
        author={Y. Zhu and D. Brown},
        booktitle={2015 IEEE Power Energy Society General Meeting},
        title={{Prepare to meet the challenges in regional transmission planning and development}},
        year={2015},
        volume={},
        number={},
        pages={1-5},
        keywords={hydroelectric power;investment;power grids;power transmission economics;power transmission planning;power transmission reliability;regional planning;wind power;economical benefit analysis;federal right of first refusal removal;hydro power export;regional cost allocation;regional transmission development;regional transmission planning;system reliability enhancement;transmission investment;weak grid;wind energy delivery;wind energy energy export;Economics;HVDC transmission;Planning;Reactive power;Reliability;Voltage control;Wind farms;Competition;Economic Analysis;FERC Order 1000;Project Screening;Project Selection;ROFR;Regional Transmission Planning;Reliability Analysis;Renewable Energy;Transfer Limit;Weak Grid},
        doi={10.1109/PESGM.2015.7286306},
        ISSN={1932-5517},
        month={July},
    }
    @inproceedings{lorenzen2016,
        title={{Control of a grid connected converter during weak grid conditions}},
        author={Lorenzen, S{\o}ren Lund and Nielsen, Alex Buus and Bede, Lorand},
        booktitle={Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG), 2016 IEEE 7th International Symposium on},
        pages={1--6},
        year={2016},
        organization={IEEE}
    }
    @inproceedings{manjure2001,
        title={{Steady state stability assessment using the bus impedance matrix}},
        author={Manjure, DP and Makram, EB},
        booktitle={Power Engineering, 2001. LESCOPE'01. 2001 Large Engineering Systems Conference on},
        pages={153--157},
        year={2001},
        organization={IEEE}
    }
\end{filecontents*}


\documentclass{book}


\usepackage[x11names]{xcolor}

\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{citecolor=DodgerBlue3, citebordercolor=DodgerBlue3, colorlinks=true}

\usepackage[style=authoryear-comp]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{sample.bib}

\makeatletter

\newrobustcmd*{\parentexttrack}[1]{%
    \begingroup
    \blx@blxinit
    \blx@setsfcodes
    \blx@bibopenparen#1\blx@bibcloseparen
    \endgroup}

\AtEveryCite{%
    \let\parentext=\parentexttrack%
    \let\bibopenparen=\bibopenbracket%
    \let\bibcloseparen=\bibclosebracket}

\renewbibmacro*{cite}{%
    \iffieldundef{shorthand}
    {\ifthenelse{\ifnameundef{labelname}\OR\iffieldundef{labelyear}}
        {\usebibmacro{cite:label}%
            \setunit{\addspace}}
        {\printnames{labelname}%
            \setunit{\nameyeardelim}}%
        %     \usebibmacro{cite:labelyear+extrayear}}% DELETED
        \printtext[parens]{\usebibmacro{cite:labelyear+extrayear}}}% ADDED
    {\usebibmacro{cite:shorthand}}}

\makeatother



\begin{document}

\cite{wu2017,wu2019method}

\cite{zhu2015,lorenzen2016,manjure2001}

\printbibliography

\end{document}

Answer 1

This is one of the jobs that I wrote biblatex-ext for. With

\DeclareInnerCiteDelims{textcite}{\bibopenbracket}{\bibclosebracket}

you can tell \textcite to use square brackets instead of round parentheses for the year. You just need to load the ext- version of your style, so you would load style=ext-authoryear-comp instead of style=authoryear-comp. Everything else will remain as is.

I copied the \autocite–\textcite mapping from David Purton's answer.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[style=ext-authoryear-comp]{biblatex}

\DeclareAutoCiteCommand{textcite}{\textcite}{\textcites}
\ExecuteBibliographyOptions{autocite=textcite}

\DeclareInnerCiteDelims{textcite}{\bibopenbracket}{\bibclosebracket}

\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
\autocite{knuth:ct:a,knuth:ct:b}

\autocite{knuth:ct:a,worman,sigfridsson}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

---

Of course biblatex-ext would also allow you to change \cite directly, but I avoided that since I believe your desired output is more \textcite-like.

\DeclareInnerCiteDelims{cite}{\bibopenbracket}{\bibclosebracket}

There are subtle differences in the placement of post- and pre-notes and citation delimiters between \textcite and \cite.

Answer 2

Your trouble comes from the fact that the cite macro is a little different in authoryear-comp to authoryear.

This also makes it more complicated to just put brackets around a year as they may be compressed.

I suggest making use of \textcite and patching the textcite macro to use brackets instead of parentheses. (There's probably a variety of ways of doing this depending on exactly what you want.)

To set the delimiter used in \textcite to a semicolon, use \renewcommand*{\textcitedelim}{\addsemicolon\space}

To make this the default, but still allow for flexibility in changing styles, I suggest you add an autocite style pointing to textcite and use \autocite everywhere, which can then be easily changed globally.

MWE

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{wu2018,
    title={Assessing Impact of Renewable Energy Integration on System Strength Using Site-Dependent Short Circuit Ratio},
    author={Wu, Di and Li, Gangan and Javadi, Milad and Malyscheff, Alexander M and Hong, Mingguo and Jiang, John Ning},
    journaltitle={IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy},
    date={2018}
}
@article{wu2017,
    title={Assessing Impact of Renewable Energy Integration on System Strength Using Site-Dependent Short Circuit Ratio},
    author={Wu, Di and Li, Gangan and Javadi, Milad and Malyscheff, Alexander M and Hong, Mingguo and Jiang, John Ning},
    journaltitle={IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy},
    date={2017}
}
@article{wu2019method,
    title={A method to identify weak points of interconnection of renewable energy resources},
    author={Wu, Di and Aldaoudeyeh, Al~Motasem and Javadi, Milad and Ma, Feng and Tan, Jin and Jiang, John N and others},
    journaltitle={International Journal of Electrical Power \& Energy Systems},
    volume={110},
    pages={72-82},
    date={2019},
}
@inproceedings{zhu2015,
    author={Y. Zhu and D. Brown},
    booktitle={2015 IEEE Power Energy Society General Meeting},
    title={Prepare to Meet the Challenges in Regional Transmission Planning and Development},
    date={2015},
    pages={1-5},
    doi={10.1109/PESGM.2015.7286306},
    ISSN={1932-5517},
    month={July}
}
@inproceedings{lorenzen2016,
    title={Control of a Grid Connected Converter During Weak Grid Conditions},
    author={Lorenzen, Søren Lund and Nielsen, Alex Buus and Bede, Lorand},
    booktitle={Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG), 2016 IEEE 7th International Symposium on},
    pages={1-6},
    date={2016},
    organization={IEEE}
}
@inproceedings{manjure2001,
    title={Steady State Stability Assessment Using the Bus Impedance Matrix},
    author={Manjure, DP and Makram, EB},
    booktitle={Power Engineering, 2001. LESCOPE'01. 2001 Large Engineering Systems Conference on},
    pages={153-157},
    date={2001},
    organization={IEEE}
}
\end{filecontents}

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[style=authoryear-comp]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\DeclareAutoCiteCommand{textcite}{\textcite}{\textcites}
\ExecuteBibliographyOptions{autocite=textcite}

% You need to patch in a few places
\usepackage{xpatch}
\renewcommand*{\textcitedelim}{\addsemicolon\space}
\xpatchbibmacro{textcite}
  {\bibopenparen}
  {\bibopenbracket}
  {}
  {}
\xpatchbibmacro{textcite}
  {\bibcloseparen}
  {\bibclosebracket}
  {}
  {}
\xpatchbibmacro{textcite}
  {\bibopenparen}
  {\bibopenbracket}
  {}
  {}
\renewbibmacro*{textcite:postnote}{%
  \usebibmacro{postnote}%
  \ifthenelse{\value{multicitecount}=\value{multicitetotal}}
    {\setunit{}%
     \printtext{%
       \ifbool{cbx:parens}
         {\bibclosebracket\global\boolfalse{cbx:parens}}
         {}}}
    {\setunit{%
       \ifbool{cbx:parens}
         {\bibclosebracket\global\boolfalse{cbx:parens}}
         {}%
       \textcitedelim}}}

\begin{document}

\autocite{wu2017,wu2018}

\autocite{wu2017,wu2019method}

\autocite{zhu2015,lorenzen2016,manjure2001}

\end{document}