BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ one newbie problem about bibtex coping with latex

[deathlypest]

Thank you for your help in advance. I'am really confused by this problem in my urgent assignment.

my easy code looks like following:

Code: Select all

% Template file for a standard thesis
% Template file for a standard thesis
\documentclass[12pt]{thesis}
\usepackage{natbib}

\begin{document}

bla..bla.....

\bibliographystyle{apa}
\bibliography{mybib}

\end{document}

it causes an error

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! Undefined control sequence.
<argument> \undefinedpagestyle 
                               
l.1 \begin{thebibliography}{}
                             
? 

mybib.bib :

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@mastersthesis{struss,
     AUTHOR = "Joseph A. Struss",
     TITLE = "An investigation of the sequence of utilizing a simulation in an introductory programming course",
     SCHOOL = "Iowa State University",
     YEAR = 1996}

if I commented these two guys

Code: Select all

\bibliographystyle{apa}
\bibliography{mybib}

it will run just fine.

I have a file called apa.bst under the same directory with my .tex file and also mybib.bib.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

welcome to the board!

There are different thesis classes. Which one do you use? Perhaps post it as attachment to a forum post, or provide a link where it can be downloaded.

Stefan

[deathlypest]

Hi,

welcome to the board!

There are different thesis classes. Which one do you use? Perhaps post it as attachment to a forum post, or provide a link where it can be downloaded.

Stefan

hi,thank you for your answer.Should there be a file to support class thesis? Is that not built in. I've changed it into report or article somehow. But still the same problem.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Should there be a file to support class thesis? Is that not built in.

The file would be called thesis.cls. There is no built-in standard class thesis. Several people had the idea to develop one, and chose that name. So nobody can test your code without to know which class you use.

But still the same problem.

Are you sure you chose the lines, which are responsible, for the code snippet above? If not, post a complete small code example, such as a reduced copy of your code, not just some lines, which nobody can test.

Once we can verify a problem, we usually can solve it.

Stefan

[deathlypest]

Should there be a file to support class thesis? Is that not built in.

The file would be called thesis.cls. There is no built-in standard class thesis. Several people had the idea to develop one, and chose that name. So nobody can test your code without to know which class you use.

But still the same problem.

Are you sure you chose the lines, which are responsible, for the code snippet above? If not, post a complete small code example, such as a reduced copy of your code, not just some lines, which nobody can test.

Once we can verify a problem, we usually can solve it.

Stefan

Thanks for your elaborate explaination.I have uploaded the necessary .cls file and also tested my provided codes which should have sketched exact problem of mine.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

It's not yet sufficient to test the problem. We don't have the isutraditional package (well, we could search on the Internet), but more important: you uploaded isuthesis.cls but your document uses thesis.cls, as I can see in the example code. And when I tested it (with a downloaded isutraditional.sty) it worked without errors.

So still not possible to verify the error. However, try this, in your preamble, it might help, as it defines page styles which are commonly used:

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\usepackage{fancyhdr}

Stefan

[deathlypest]

It's not yet sufficient to test the problem. We don't have the isutraditional package (well, we could search on the Internet), but more important: you uploaded isuthesis.cls but your document uses thesis.cls, as I can see in the example code. And when I tested it (with a downloaded isutraditional.sty) it worked without errors.

So still not possible to verify the error. However, try this, in your preamble, it might help, as it defines page styles which are commonly used:

Code: Select all

\usepackage{fancyhdr}

Stefan

I have shrinked the codes getting rid of useless packages.
Really the error is gone , it's weird.
But the contents in mybib.bib aren't represented in main text.Can you tell me what's wrong with my connection. Really appreciate your time and patience!!

[Stefan Kottwitz]

I have shrinked the codes getting rid of useless packages.
Really the error is gone , it's weird.

So the error was caused by a code line or a package which has been removed. Good that it's gone, but if you would like to locate the cause, repeat and remove step by step, test each step, so you would get it isolated.

But the contents in mybib.bib aren't represented in main text.

You need to run BibTeX, either via your editor or bibtex documentname at the command prompt. Citations in the text are required to have the references in the bibliography. Having all can be forced by \nocite{*}.

Stefan

[deathlypest]

I have shrinked the codes getting rid of useless packages.
Really the error is gone , it's weird.

So the error was caused by a code line or a package which has been removed. Good that it's gone, but if you would like to locate the cause, repeat and remove step by step, test each step, so you would get it isolated.

But the contents in mybib.bib aren't represented in main text.

You need to run BibTeX, either via your editor or bibtex documentname at the command prompt. Citations in the text are required to have the references in the bibliography. Having all can be forced by \nocite{*}.

Stefan

yeah thanks again
I have found something about that three steps compilation on website and tried it.

Additional I have added \nocite{*} as you mentioned and also one \cite{key} which represents as a question mark at last.

I have no idea to progress.Do you need more informations.I don't know what I can provide here. Latex is just such hard work.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Sure, LaTeX is not easy at the beginning. With more experience, there's full control. I'm sure it would be easy if I could see the code. More information needed? Sure - as I said above: a minimal working example. Follow the link to learn why and how. Your task is just to provide information to reproduce the problem. We would do the task to fix it then.

Stefan