Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref too many keys

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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: Help:Footnotes

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

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

Any footnote can be assigned to a group:

<ref group="foobar">content</ref>

Or both:

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

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.

Issues and resolution

A named reference tag has too many names or parameters. A quoteless name such as foo bar will be parsed as two separate names due to the space, thus generating the error. You can only specify two parameters, name and group. You can't, for instance, format a reference with <ref style="color:red;">content</ref>, or give it an id.

A good, quick, and likely to work solution is to add double quotes, for example to replace name=With Space with name="With Space".

Examples

In this example, reference 1 is named foo bar, which is invalid due to the space. In reference 2 foo bar is valid as it is enclosed in quotes and reference 3 is valid as foo_bar uses an underscore.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.<ref name=foo bar>Reference 1</ref> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref name="foo bar">Reference 2</ref> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.<ref name=foo bar>Reference 3</ref> Curabitur pretium tincidunt lacus. Nulla gravida orci a odio. Nullam varius, turpis et commodo pharetra, est eros bibendum elit, nec luctus magna felis sollicitudin mauris. Integer in mauris eu nibh euismod gravida.

==References==
{{reflist}}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 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. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Curabitur pretium tincidunt lacus. Nulla gravida orci a odio. Nullam varius, turpis et commodo pharetra, est eros bibendum elit, nec luctus magna felis sollicitudin mauris. Integer in mauris eu nibh euismod gravida.

References

Bugs

Tracked in Bugzilla
Bug 42040

• bug 42040 (comment #Cite error ref too many keys not generated if name chunk contains other than A–Z, a–z, 0–9)http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42040

This error is not generated if the name fragment after the space contains (not just begins) any other character than A–Z, a–z, 0–9. When this condition occurs, the link is truncated after the space. In this example, although the name fragment after the space contains a different character, all three references generate the same link:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.<ref name=foo |bar>Reference 1</ref> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref name=foo !bar>Reference 2</ref> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.<ref name=foo bar#>Reference 3</ref> Curabitur pretium tincidunt lacus. Nulla gravida orci a odio. Nullam varius, turpis et commodo pharetra, est eros bibendum elit, nec luctus magna felis sollicitudin mauris. Integer in mauris eu nibh euismod gravida.

==References==
{{reflist}}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 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. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Curabitur pretium tincidunt lacus. Nulla gravida orci a odio. Nullam varius, turpis et commodo pharetra, est eros bibendum elit, nec luctus magna felis sollicitudin mauris. Integer in mauris eu nibh euismod gravida.

References

Technical

Pages with this error message are placed into Pages with incorrect ref formatting. The system message page is at Cite error ref too many keys.