Template:Ref

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This documentation is for the {{ref}}, {{note}}, {{ref label}} and {{note label}} templates. The note templates place notes into an article, and the ref templates place labeled references to the notes, with the labels normally being clickable links for navigating from a ref to a corresponding note and back from the note to the ref. The label pair of templates are similar to the pair without the label name, but with more features.

The links and backlinks are identified internally by combining the specified parameters. The templates take a variable number of unnamed parameters identified by their position and, optionally, a named parameter named noid which, if used, should be set by specifying it as "noid=noid".

The first parameter of {{ref}} is a label that has to be used for the parameter of the corresponding {{note}}. The label is used to form the fragment identifier for the footnote link and back link. The second parameter of {{ref}} is the footnote reference marker, shown as a superscript. The easiest choice is to make these two the same, but this is not a requirement. If the second parameter is not supplied, the marker is a superscripted external link of the form [n].

Behaviour

{{ref|id|label|noid=noid}}
{{note|id|label|text}}
{{ref label|id|label|backlink|noid=noid}}
{{note label|id|label|backlink|text}}

Common parameters

Parameter 1 (id, mandatory): Forms HTML element identifiers for note and back links

Parameter 2 (label): Note label. Displayed by ref and ref label as a link in superior square brackets. If omitted from ref, a superior external link is produced instead, creating a unique number in square brackets. Mandatory for ref label. See below for note and note label.

{{ref|behaviour Label 1|Label 1}} → ^{Label 1}
{{ref|behaviour unlabelled}} → ^[2]

Note parameter 3, note label parameter 4 (text, optional): Note text displayed after note label or back link label. Separated by a space in note but not (presumably originally unintended) in note label.

noid=noid (ref and ref label, optional): Suppresses HTML element identifier for back link. Only makes sense if another ref instance already uses the same identifier, because the back link in the corresponding note is mandatory.

Back links

In note, the optional note label is appended to a caret "^", which forms the back link.

{{note|behaviour Label 1|Label 1|Text}} → Template:Note
{{note|behaviour unlabelled||Text}} → Template:Note

In ref label and note label, parameter 3 (backlink, optional) is appended to the HTML element identifiers generated from parameter 1. If this back link parameter is specified, note label displays the back link in superscript instead of any note label. If the note text (parameter 4) is also specified to note label, the text may be attached to the back link wikilink, especially if when begins with a lower case letter.

{{ref label|behaviour Label 2a|Label 2a|Back}} → ^{[Label 2a]}
{{ref label|behaviour Label 2b|Label 2b|Back}} → ^{[Label 2b]}

{{note label|behaviour Label 2a|Label 2a|Back|Capitalised footnote}} → ^BackCapitalised footnote
{{note label|behaviour Label 2b|Label 2b|Back|lower case footnote}} → ^Backlower case footnote

If the back link (parameter 3) is omitted, the HTML element identifiers are compatible with the ref and note templates, note label displays the note label in superscript, and there is no wikilink for the text to stick to.

{{ref label|behaviour Label 3|Label 3}} → ^{[Label 3]}

{{note label|behaviour Label 3|Label 3||Text}} → ^{Label 3}Text

Parameter 3=none (specified literally): Superscript caret character "^" is used as back link label, displayed as if "3=^".

{{ref label|behaviour Label 4|Label 4|none}} → ^{[Label 4]}

{{note label|behaviour Label 4|Label 4|none|Text}} → ^{^}Text

Multiple back links

The back link parameters are presumably to allow different back links using the same note label. The back links could be associated with the same note, similar to Help:Footnotes#Multiple references to the same footnote.

{{ref label|behaviour Label 5|Label 5|Back 1}} → ^{[Label 5]}
{{ref label|behaviour Label 5|Label 5|Back 2}} → ^{[Label 5]}

Label 5. {{note label|behaviour Label 5|Label 5|Back 1}} {{note label|behaviour Label 5|Label 5|Back 2}} Text → Label 5. ^{Back 1} ^{Back 2} Text

Very simple example

Article	Wikitext
Text that requires a footnote.{{ref\|a\|1}} ==Notes== :1.{{note\|a}}Body of the footnote.	Text that requires a footnote.¹ Notes 1.Template:NoteBody of the footnote.

Labels must be unique

A common error when using {{ref}} is to use it multiple times with the same label. For example:

Text that requires a footnote.{{ref|1|1}}
Some other text that requires the same footnote.{{ref|1|1}}

==Notes==
:1.{{note|1}}Body of the footnote.

This generates two citations with the same label, which is invalid HTML. To fix the problem, use multiple unique IDs; see More complex examples.

Simple examples

{{ref}} and {{note}}

Example:

Article text{{ref|reference_name_A|a}} more text{{ref|reference_name_B|b}} more text {{ref|reference_name_C|c|noid=noid}}.
*Bulleted text{{ref|reference_name_B|b|noid=noid}}
*Bulleted text{{ref|reference_name_C|c}}.
*
*intervening text
*
*{{note|reference_name_A|a}}Text for note a.
*{{note|reference_name_B|b}}Text for note b.
*{{note|reference_name_C|c|Text for note c (with extended highlighting).}}

This would produce:

Article text^a more text^b more text ^c.

Bulleted text^b
Bulleted text^c.
intervening text
Template:NoteText for note a.
Template:NoteText for note b.
Template:Note

Notice that the navigation back from the note to the ref does not work by clicking the backlink for refs which specify "noid=noid". In practice, if "noid=noid" is specified, it is usually specified for all refs having identical unnamed parameters, and navigation back to the associated ref is done by using the browser's "Back" button.

Also notice that browsers which support highlighting of link-accessed material highlight the active backlink by default, and that the highlighting has been extended to encompass the text for note c by specifying that text as a final template parameter instead of placing it outside of the template.

More complex examples

{{ref label}} pairs with {{note label}}. The {{note label}} template will normally have identical parameters with the ref label with which it is paired, and is normally created by copying the ref, pasting it into the note location, and changing its name to "note label"; this avoids having parameters mismatched because of a typo. Navigation forward uses parameters 1 and 3, navigation backward uses parameters 1 and 2. Parameter 3 is optional, and {{note label}} has an optional fourth parameter.

Example:

Article text{{ref label|reference_name_A|a|1}} more text{{ref label|reference_name_G|g|}} more text {{ref label|reference_name_B|b|2}} more text {{ref label|reference_name_C|c|3}} more text {{ref label|reference name_D|d|4}} more text {{ref label|reference name_E|e|none}} more text {{ref label|reference name_F|f|}} more text {{ref label|reference_name_H|h|8}}.
*
*intervening text
*
*{{note label|reference_name_A|a|1}}Text of note for ref a.
*{{note label|reference_name_B|b|2}}Text of note for ref b.
*{{note label|reference_name_C|c|3|ABCDE}}Text of note for ref c.
*{{note label|reference_name_D|d|4|FGHIJ}}Text of note for ref d.
*{{note label|reference_name_E|e|none}}Text of note for ref e.
*{{note label|reference_name_F|f}}Text of note for ref f.
*{{note label|reference_name_G|g||{{note label|reference_name_H|h|8|Text of note for refs g and h (with extended highlighting).}}}}

This would produce:

Article text^[a] more text^[g] more text ^[b] more text ^[c] more text ^[d] more text ^[e] more text ^[f] more text ^[h].

intervening text
¹ Text of note for ref a.
² Text of note for ref b.
³ABCDE Text of note for ref c.
⁴FGHIJ Text of note for ref d.
^{^} Text of note for ref e.
^f Text of note for ref f.
^g⁸Text of note for refs g and h (with extended highlighting).

Note that {{ref label}} produces a superscripted link with square brackets.
The note for ref e has a "^" character as its backlink, because parameter 3 was specified as "none".
The notes for refs f and g do not have a clickable backlink, because parameter 3 was not specified.

Notice that, because the notes for refs g and h above use the same text, note h was made a part of the text passed as a final parameter to note g in order for the extended highlighting to cover both notes.

Table footnotes

One common application for {{ref}} and {{note}} templates is in placing footnotes below tables, as in the following example taken from the Kent#Economy article:

To allow the preview, <ol type="A"> is used. to form the needed list.

Year	Regional GVA^[A]	Agriculture		Industry^[B]		Services^[C]
County of Kent (excluding Medway)
1995	12,369	379	3.1%	3,886	31.4%	8,104	65.5%
2000	15,259	259	1.7%	4,601	30.2%	10,399	68.1%
2003	18,126	287	1.6%	5,057	27.9%	12,783	70.5%
Medway
1995	1,823	21	3.1%	560	31.4%	1,243	68.2%
2000	2,348	8	1.7%	745	30.2%	1,595	67.9%
2003	2,671	10	1.6%	802	27.9%	1,859	69.6%

^{^} Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
^{^} includes energy and construction
^{^} includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Alternative referencing style

Using ref/note tags is not the only way to do footnotes. Some people prefer to use Cite.php. Cite.php has many advantages, but is not mandatory. You can use the Ref converter to replace ref/note tags with the newer Cite.php style. If you are interested in the discussion, please see the Footnotes talk page. For details of that system, please see Help:Footnotes.

Combining Ref family templates with the alternative referencing style

An example combining the use of Ref-family templates with the alternative referencing style might be something like

Yammer yammer yammer.<ref name=smith2000>Smith wrote the definitive book on yammering.{{ref|Smith2000|Smith 2000}}
</ref>Yammer yammer yammer.<ref name=smith2000/>
...
==References==
<References/>
...
==Bibliography==
*{{note|Smith2000}} Smith (2000). "A book about yammering".

which could produce something like:

Yammer yammer yammer.^[1]Yammer yammer yammer.^[1] ... References ^ ^a ^b Smith wrote the definitive book on yammering.^{Smith 2000} ... Bibliography Template:Note Smith (2000). "A book about yammering".

Also see examples and explanation in Wikipedia:Footnote3.

Third party tool

A third-party tool to translate articles using the templates described on this page into the Cite.php system is available, see Ref converter.