BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ "I didn't find a database entry for" message

[esorato]

I am getting this warning message on .blg file after adding a ref using mendeley desktop from www.
I tried to remove the entry from collection and and the dowloaded file manually but it still gives me the same message.
I am using kile + mint + abnttex.
Could someone give me a hint on this ?

[hugovdberg]

What program returns the error message? By the way, next time please include the error in your post as well, it took me a while to recognise you were talking about the topic title Did you try making a minimal working example to narrow down what exactly causes the error? Now I can't even begin to try to reproduce the error.

[esorato]

Hi hugovdberg.
Thank you for answering.
Sorry for the lack of information.
Please, find bellow the report from .blg.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Code: Select all

This is BibTeX, Version 0.99c (TeX Live 2009/Debian)
The top-level auxiliary file: dissert_sorato2014_v01.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap1.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap2v1.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap3v1.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap4.aux
The style file: abnt-alf.bstThis is BibTeX, Version 0.99c (TeX Live 2009/Debian)
The top-level auxiliary file: dissert_sorato2014_v01.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap1.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap2v1.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap3v1.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap4.aux
The style file: abnt-alf.bst
Reallocated wiz_functions (elt_size=4) to 6000 items from 3000.
Database file #1: edson.bib
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-nbr10520=2002"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-and-type=e"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-year-extra-label=yes"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-url-package=html"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "Freitas"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "modelsim"
Reallocated wiz_functions (elt_size=4) to 9000 items from 6000.
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Estilo bibliográfico abnt-alf.bst versão 1.45.2.1           |
| Em caso de dúvidas ou problemas com este estilo procure |
| http://abntex.codigolivre.org.br                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
You've used 20 entries,
            6480 wiz_defined-function locations,
            1303 strings with 12674 characters,
and the built_in function-call counts, 17976 in all, are:
= -- 1409
> -- 768
< -- 40
+ -- 331
- -- 228
* -- 1403
:= -- 2436
add.period$ -- 64
call.type$ -- 20
change.case$ -- 247
chr.to.int$ -- 44
cite$ -- 20
duplicate$ -- 831
empty$ -- 1119
format.name$ -- 1084
if$ -- 4152
int.to.chr$ -- 0This is BibTeX, Version 0.99c (TeX Live 2009/Debian)
The top-level auxiliary file: dissert_sorato2014_v01.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap1.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap2v1.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap3v1.aux
A level-1 auxiliary file: cap4.aux
The style file: abnt-alf.bst
Reallocated wiz_functions (elt_size=4) to 6000 items from 3000.
Database file #1: edson.bib
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-nbr10520=2002"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-and-type=e"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-year-extra-label=yes"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-url-package=html"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "Freitas"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "modelsim"
Reallocated wiz_functions (elt_size=4) to 9000 items from 6000.
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Estilo bibliográfico abnt-alf.bst versão 1.45.2.1           |
| Em caso de dúvidas ou problemas com este estilo procure |
| http://abntex.codigolivre.org.br                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
You've used 20 entries,
            6480 wiz_defined-function locations,
            1303 strings with 12674 characters,
and the built_in function-call counts, 17976 in all, are:
= -- 1409
> -- 768
< -- 40
+ -- 331
- -- 228
* -- 1403
:= -- 2436
add.period$ -- 64
call.type$ -- 20
change.case$ -- 247
chr.to.int$ -- 44
cite$ -- 20
duplicate$ -- 831
empty$ -- 1119
format.name$ -- 1084
if$ -- 4152
int.to.chr$ -- 0
int.to.str$ -- 0
missing$ -- 358
newline$ -- 112
num.names$ -- 100
pop$ -- 512
preamble$ -- 1
purify$ -- 88
quote$ -- 0
skip$ -- 925
stack$ -- 1
substring$ -- 751
swap$ -- 414
text.length$ -- 32
text.prefix$ -- 0
top$ -- 0
type$ -- 0
warning$ -- 0
while$ -- 163
width$ -- 0
write$ -- 323
(There were 6 warnings)

int.to.str$ -- 0
missing$ -- 358
newline$ -- 112
num.names$ -- 100
pop$ -- 512
preamble$ -- 1
purify$ -- 88
quote$ -- 0
skip$ -- 925
stack$ -- 1
substring$ -- 751
swap$ -- 414
text.length$ -- 32
text.prefix$ -- 0
top$ -- 0
type$ -- 0
warning$ -- 0
while$ -- 163
width$ -- 0
write$ -- 323
(There were 6 warnings)

Reallocated wiz_functions (elt_size=4) to 6000 items from 3000.
Database file #1: edson.bib
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-nbr10520=2002"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-and-type=e"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-year-extra-label=yes"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "abnt-url-package=html"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "Freitas"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "modelsim"
Reallocated wiz_functions (elt_size=4) to 9000 items from 6000.
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Estilo bibliográfico abnt-alf.bst versão 1.45.2.1           |
| Em caso de dúvidas ou problemas com este estilo procure |
| http://abntex.codigolivre.org.br                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
You've used 20 entries,
            6480 wiz_defined-function locations,
            1303 strings with 12674 characters,
and the built_in function-call counts, 17976 in all, are:
= -- 1409
> -- 768
< -- 40
+ -- 331
- -- 228
* -- 1403
:= -- 2436
add.period$ -- 64
call.type$ -- 20
change.case$ -- 247
chr.to.int$ -- 44
cite$ -- 20
duplicate$ -- 831
empty$ -- 1119
format.name$ -- 1084
if$ -- 4152
int.to.chr$ -- 0
int.to.str$ -- 0
missing$ -- 358
newline$ -- 112
num.names$ -- 100
pop$ -- 512
preamble$ -- 1
purify$ -- 88
quote$ -- 0
skip$ -- 925
stack$ -- 1
substring$ -- 751
swap$ -- 414
text.length$ -- 32
text.prefix$ -- 0
top$ -- 0
type$ -- 0
warning$ -- 0
while$ -- 163
width$ -- 0
write$ -- 323
(There were 6 warnings)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The warning messages:
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "Freitas"
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "modelsim"

Causes this two ref to be not included in my resulting text.

I am using kile + latex + mendeley to references.

Thanks

[hugovdberg]

As you've probably figured out this message says that bibtex could not find a valid entry for that key. However, this isn't necessarily caused by the database entry itself. Did you try to copy those entries one by one to a new .bib file, and create a minimal tex file that cites the entry. By putting the entry in a file of its own (temporarily) you can rule out problems with the entry itself. So do something like this:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\cite{Freitas} % if this one works remove Freitas from temp.bib, replace it with the modelsim entry and change this line to cite modelsim.
\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{temp.bib}
\end{document}

If that works you could also try adding packages that deal with the bibliography in your main document to see if that causes any harm.

If both your entries and your list of references is not too long you could try this code and check if all entries in your .bib file are represented in the output:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\nocite{*} %includes all valid entries from the database in the list of references
\bibliographystyle{plain} % you could also change this to abnt-alf to see if there is an incompatibility between the entries and this bibliographystyle
\bibliography{edson.bib}
\end{document}

Finally, if you ruled out problems with the .bib-file, you could try the solution mentioned over at tex.se.