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What happens if I put \label before \caption?

Postby Reader » Thu Oct 07, 2021 4:59 pm

In Chapter 7, Cross-Referencing, I read that the \label command has to be placed after the \caption command, not before.

What happens if I put \label before \caption?

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Stefan Kottwitz
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What happens if I put \label before \caption?  Topic is solved

Postby Stefan Kottwitz » Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:03 am

\caption takes care of the figure counter that \label should ise. If \label comes before \caption, it takes some previous counter, which is wrong.

Let's look at this in this example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\section{Introduction}
\section{Figures}
\begin{figure}[hb]
\centering
\includegraphics[height=2cm,width=3cm]{example-image}
\label{fig:example}% before \caption, which is wrong
\caption{An example figure}
\end{figure}
\section{Appendix}
\begin{figure}[hb]
\centering
\includegraphics[height=2cm,width=3cm]{example-image}
\label{fig:other}% before \caption, which is wrong
\caption{Another example figure}
\end{figure}
% Now we get wrong reference numbers:
See example figure \ref{fig:example} and another figure \ref{fig:other}.
\end{document}


When we compile it, we get:

figures-labels.png
figures-labels.png (24.28 KiB) Viewed 23473 times


We can see that the references at the end are clearly wrong. If we take a closer look, we see that they refere to the section number, where they are in. Move \label after \caption, and the issue is fixed.

Stefan


Last bumped by Anonymous on Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:03 am.
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