\sectionref and \subsectionref

Question

I'm using a custom counter which I increment every now and then :

\newcounter{MyCounter}[subsection]
\newcommand{\stepTheCounter}{%
    % do stuff, whatever
    \refstepcounter{MyCounter}
}

Then, if I use a \label{someLabel} somewhere, I would like to be able to have a custom command \theReference{someLabel}, so that if I have a line like Lorem ipsum dolor \theReference{someLabel} sit amet, it shows something like

Lorem ipsum dolor X.Y.Z (page W) sit amet

where X is the section number, Y is the subsection number, Z is the value gotten from \ref{someLabel}, and W is the value gotten from \pageref{someLabel}.

So the thing is : there is a \pageref command, but (supposedly ?) no \etionref nor \subsectionref commands. But I feel like it should be normal to be able to achieve this easily...

None of the threads opened on the TeXExchange helped me... Thanks for the kind replies !

Answer 1

I propose two ways depending on what you want \theMyCounter to do.

First way

If you want \theMyCounter to print the plain counter number, you can use:

\documentclass{article}

\newcounter{MyCounter}
\labelformat{MyCounter}{\thesubsection.#1}

\newcommand{\stepTheCounter}{%
 % do stuff, whatever
 \refstepcounter{MyCounter}%
}
\newcommand*{\myRef}[1]{\ref{#1} (page~\pageref{#1})}

\begin{document}

\section{First section}
\subsection{A subsection}

Foo bar.\stepTheCounter\label{first}
\verb|\theMyCounter| yields \theMyCounter.
The second use of \verb|\stepTheCounter| is \myRef{second}.
\newpage

\section{Second section}
\subsection{A subsection}

Bla. \stepTheCounter\label{second}
\verb|\theMyCounter| yields \theMyCounter.
The first use of \verb|\stepTheCounter| is \myRef{first}.

\end{document}

...

Second way

If you prefer \theMyCounter to print something like 2.1.2 (assuming the \stepTheCounter call preceding the \label was in section 2, subsection 1), then simply replace the line:

\labelformat{MyCounter}{\thesubsection.#1}

with:

\renewcommand{\theMyCounter}{\thesubsection.\arabic{MyCounter}}

and the output will be as follows.

...

Of course, you'll probably want to call these inside a subsection (if you use \stepTheCounter inside a section but not inside a subsection, the subsection counter will be zero).