Template:Refn
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Purpose
This template is used to create footnotes in Wikipedia, as an alternative and complement to the <ref>
. Because of a technical limitation, some of the standard Wikipedia markup elements that are often used in the article prose do not work within a set of <ref>...</ref>
tags, including but not limited to the pipe trick, template substitution and another "nested" set of <ref>...</ref>
tags. For example, the following does not work as expected:
<ref>[[Help:Footnotes|]]</ref>
(Generates: [[Help:Footnotes|]] instead of a wikilink)<ref>{{SUBST:TODAY}}</ref>
(Generates: {{SUBST:TODAY}} instead of the date that the edit was made)<ref>Explanatory footnote<ref>Citation</ref></ref>
(Generates: Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). </ref>)
Replacing the outermost <ref>...</ref>
set with {{Refn}} allows for the use of the markup elements listed above.
Usage
{{refn|group=groupname|name=name|Contents of the footnote}}
- groupname: Groupname per WP:REFGROUP; if not specified, then the main and nested references will be rendered into the same reference list
- name: Reference name per WP:REFNAME
Examples
Footnotes with citations
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
|
|
Other forms of citations
Markup | Renders as |
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|
An example.[note 1] Another example.[2] A third example.[note 2] Repeating the first example.[note 1] Repeating the second example.[2] A fourth example with citation templates.[4]
|
Substitution
The first example shows that substitution does not work in a regular <ref>...</ref>
tag (the |access-date=
does not appear correctly). The second example shows that the |access-date=
is substituted correctly within {{refn}}.
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
|
|
{{refn|{{cite web |access-date={{Subst:TODAY}} |title=Languages |work=Apache HTTP Server |agency=Ohloh |publisher= Black Duck Software |url=https://www.ohloh.net/p/apache/analyses/latest/languages_summary}}}} {{reflist}} |
|
Errors
If the reference or note content is missing, then Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content. will be displayed.
If the note content contains an equals sign (=
), the equals sign will be interpreted as setting off a named parameter and cause an error. This can be worked around by using a numbered parameter, for example:
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
{{refn|1+1=2}} |
Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page). |
{{refn|1= 1+1=2}} |
|
{{#section:Help:footnotes|pregroup}}
See also
- {{r}} (another template supporting nested footnotes)
- {{citeref}} (a different method to create nested links working on citation template anchor level rather than <ref></ref> markup level)
Template:Wikipedia referencing
TemplateData
See the monthly error report for this template.
TemplateData for Refn
This template is used to create footnotes in Wikipedia, as an alternative and complement to the <ref> tag.
Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
---|---|---|---|---|
content | 1 refn | The content of the footnote. | Content | required |
Name | name | The name of the footnote. Corresponds to the "name" attribute of the <ref> tag. | String | optional |
group | group | The reference group. Corresponds to the "group" attribute on the <ref> tag. | String | optional |
The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Refn/doc. (edit | history) Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages. Please add categories and interwikis to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template. |