Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no key

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• Please reference this page and the page where you have the problem so we can understand your issues.
• For basic information on the footnotes system, see Referencing for beginners; for advanced help, see Footnotes.

Overview

Further information: WP:REFNAME

A footnote used multiple times may be defined with a name:

<ref name="foo">content</ref>

To invoke a named footnote:

<ref name="foo" />

Issues and resolution

A named reference has a malformed name. This is produced by a construct like <ref /> or by an invalid footnote name; either create a full reference such as <ref>content</ref> or give the tag a name like <ref name="refname" />.

Names

Names for footnotes and groups must follow these rules:

• Names are case-sensitive
• Names may not be purely numeric
• Names must be unique—you cannot use the same name to define different groups or footnotes
• Quotation marks are optional if the only characters used are letters A–Z, a–z, digits 0–9, and the symbols  ! $ % & ( ) * , - . : ; < @ [ ] ^ _ ` { | } ~ .
• Inclusion of any other characters, including spaces, requires that the reference name be enclosed in quotes: name="John Smith".
• The quote marks must be the standard straight keyboard marks ("); curly or other quotes will be parsed as part of the reference name.
• Quote-enclosed reference names may not include a less-than sign (<) or a double straight quote symbol ("). These may be escaped with < and ", respectively.
• Please consider keeping reference names simple and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals.
• You may optionally provide reference names even when the reference name is not required. This makes later re-use of the sourced reference easier.

Examples

In this example, reference 1 improperly starts with <ref />:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.<ref/>Reference 1</ref> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref>Reference 2</ref> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

==References==
{{reflist}}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.Reference 1</ref> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

Technical

Pages with this error message are placed into Pages with incorrect ref formatting. The system message page is at Cite error ref no key.