Tɛmplet: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:

1. <ref>[[Help:Footnotes|]]</ref> (Generates: [[Help:Footnotes|]] instead of a wikilink)
2. <ref>{{SUBST:TODAY}}</ref> (Generates: {{SUBST:TODAY}} instead of the date that the edit was made)
3. <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
<syntaxhighlight lang="HTML">An example.{{refn|group=note|name=first|A note.<ref>An included reference.</ref>}} Another example.{{refn|group=note|Another note.<ref>Another included reference.</ref>}} A third example.{{refn|group=note|The third note.<ref>The reference in the third note.</ref>}} Repeating the first example.{{refn|group=note|name=first}} ==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}} ==References== {{reflist}}</syntaxhighlight>	An example. Another example. A third example. Repeating the first example. Notes References

Other forms of citations

Markup	Renders as
<syntaxhighlight lang="HTML">An example.{{refn|group=note|name=first|A note.<ref>The reference in the first note.</ref>}} Another example.{{refn|name=ref|Another reference, but without a note.}} A third example.{{refn|group=note|A second note.<ref>The reference in the second note.</ref>}} Repeating the first example.{{refn|group=note|name=first}} Repeating the second example.{{refn|name=ref}} A fourth example with citation templates.{{refn|name=harv|{{cite book|author=Smith|title=The Solar System|year=2005|mode=cs2}}, quoted in {{harvnb|Jones|2020|p=25}}.}} ==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}} ==References== {{reflist}}</syntaxhighlight>	An example. Another example. A third example. Repeating the first example. Repeating the second example. A fourth example with citation templates. Notes References

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
<syntaxhighlight lang="HTML"><ref>{{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}}</ref> {{reflist}}</syntaxhighlight>
{{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}}
{{refn|1= 1+1=2}}

There are several predefined groups that can have a reference list styled so that the label (a superscripted character within square brackets, e.g., Tɛmplet:Dummy ref) of an explanatory note or citation (aka footnote, reference) matches and links to the note marker label located in the main text and the label in front of the note's text in the appropriate group's list. There can be more than one of these groups' lists in the Notes, References and other similarly purposed sections.

These predefined note and citation groups have templates that make the wikitext markup simpler. These templates also allow a standard reference to be inserted, so that an explanatory note can have a reference, or citations can be nested.

Note: If the note's text has a reference name that is used more than once, the labels will still match, but the clickable alpha characters that toggle the note's display will be next to the note's label, with links to the multiple locations of its marker in the main text. See WP:REFNAME and the first point below in § Issues.

Template use by reference group type

Group type	Footnote marker template or markup	Reference list template	Sample labels
none by default, but optionally any	<ref>...</ref>	{{reflist}}	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
	{{r}} (for nested references)
	{{refn}} (for nested references)
lower-alpha	{{efn}} {{efn-la}}	{{notelist}} {{notelist-la}}	a b c d e f g h i j
upper-alpha	{{efn-ua}}	{{notelist-ua}}	A B C D E F G H I J
lower-roman	{{efn-lr}}	{{notelist-lr}}	i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x
upper-roman	{{efn-ur}}	{{notelist-ur}}	I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
lower-greek	{{efn-lg}}	{{notelist-lg}}	α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ
note	{{NoteTag}}	{{NoteFoot}}	note 1 note 2 note 3

• {{efn}} supports |name= and |group=, which work the same as the parameters in <ref> (see, for instance, the 3rd and 4th examples below). Do not enclose values in quotes.
• {{notelist}} supports the column parameter, |refs= and |group=, which work the same as the parameters in {{reflist}}. Do not enclose values in quotes.

In these examples, the footnote labels match between the footnote marker and the reference list:

With lower-alpha labels

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.{{efn|Footnote 1}} Consectetur adipisicing elit.{{efn|Footnote 2}} Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.{{efn|Footnote 3}} {{notelist}}	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Consectetur adipisicing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

With lower-roman labels

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.{{efn-lr|Footnote 1}} Consectetur adipisicing elit.{{efn-lr|Footnote 2}} Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.{{efn-lr|Footnote 3}} {{notelist-lr}}	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.Tɛmplet:Efn-lr Consectetur adipisicing elit.Tɛmplet:Efn-lr Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.Tɛmplet:Efn-lr Tɛmplet:Notelist-lr

With named references

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.{{efn|name=fn1|Footnote 1}} Consectetur adipisicing elit.{{efn|Footnote 2}} Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.{{efn|name=fn1}} {{notelist}}	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Consectetur adipisicing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Named references can also be defined in the notelist

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.{{efn|name=fn1}} Consectetur adipisicing elit.{{efn|name=fn2}} Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.{{efn|name=fn1}} {{notelist|refs= {{efn|name=fn1|Very long footnote 1}} {{efn|name=fn2|Very long footnote 2}} }}	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Consectetur adipisicing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Issues

• Multiple backlink labels (see WP:REFNAME) are always styled as lower-alpha. This can be confusing when {{efn}} is used. See the note in the introduction of this section, above.
• The entries in the reference list will show the default decimal styling if:
  • The value for |group= in {{reflist}} or <references /> does not exactly match one of the predefined values; use {{efn}} or variant as |group= will not be needed.
  • The value for |group= in {{reflist}} or <references /> is enclosed by quotes; use {{efn}} or variant as |group= will not be needed.
  • {{reflist}} is indented with the : markup.
  • <references /> is used instead of {{reflist}}
• The entries in the reference list will have no styling if:
  • A reference is included in {{navbox}} or one of the variants and the style is set to bodyclass=hlist; to resolve this, replace the style with listclass=hlist.

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)

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. Click here to see a monthly parameter usage report for this template based on this TemplateData.

TemplateData for Refn

This template is used to create footnotes in Wikipedia, as an alternative and complement to the <ref> tag.

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

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

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