BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ Can't get .bib file to work

[KyuGreywolf]

Greetings!

I've been using LaTeX for a while now, but never used .bib files for references. I always did them in Word, and then copied them in. Today I decided to try JabRef, and hence, try using .bib files. I can't however, get any working code at all, it's just a disaster. The following is a minimal example:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[nottoc]{tocbibind}
\title{References}

\begin{document}
	\maketitle
	\tableofcontents
	\cite{b}
	\bibliographystyle{unsrt}
	\bibliography{References}
\end{document}

The reference is completely made up, I just want it to work. I think the main warning is, 'Empty `thebibliography' environment'.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks! (-:

[Ijon Tichy]

Here the same as minimal working example, so that Run LaTeX here can process the file:

Code: Select all

\begin{filecontents}[force]{\jobname.bib}
% Encoding: UTF-8

@Article{b,
  author  = {de},
  journal = {v},
  title   = {fr},
  year    = {2001},
}

@Comment{jabref-meta: databaseType:bibtex;}
\end{filecontents}
\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

\usepackage[english]{babel}
%\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}% Not needed any longer for LaTeX since 2018-04-01.
\usepackage[nottoc]{tocbibind}
\title{References}

\begin{document}
	\maketitle
	\tableofcontents
	\cite{b}
	\bibliographystyle{unsrt}
	\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}

As you can see, it works. So you've done something wrong on your side. Have you done the needed runs:

1. PDFLaTeX
2. BibTeX
3. PDFLaTeX
4. PDFLaTeX

If so, can you show us the blg-file?

BTW: You are using BibTeX. BibTeX cannot handle UTF-8, but only US-ASCII. So you should not export the bib-file with UTF-8 encoding! You could use UTF-8, if you would use biblatex + biber:

Code: Select all

\begin{filecontents}[force]{\jobname.bib}
% Encoding: UTF-8

@Article{b,
  author  = {de},
  journal = {v},
  title   = {fr},
  year    = {2001},
}

@Comment{jabref-meta: databaseType:bibtex;}
\end{filecontents}
\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[nottoc]{tocbibind}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{biblatex}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\title{References}

\begin{document}
	\maketitle
	\tableofcontents
	\cite{b}
	\printbibliography
\end{document}

Note: In this case you have to configure your editor to use biber instead of bibtex!

I always recommend to use biblatex + biber unless the production process (e.g. the publisher) does not support it.

[KyuGreywolf]

Greetings! Thanks for your reply my friend, it was super helpful!

I managed to get the second example you gave working, with biblatex + biber. I'm using TeXstudio, so had to change the default bibliography setting in the configuration to biber. Thanks again

[Bartman]

@KyuGreywolf

Maybe a bit off topic:

As you can see from the entry that was not made in the table of contents, biblatex does not interface with tocbibind. It has its own options to control the insertion of the bibliography heading into the mentioned directory.

[KyuGreywolf]

@KyuGreywolf

Maybe a bit off topic:

As you can see from the entry that was not made in the table of contents, biblatex does not interface with tocbibind. It has its own options to control the insertion of the bibliography heading into the mentioned directory.

It's good that you've mentioned this, because this all stemmed from the issue of both having a Bibliography and References in the same document. I've managed to fix this using the line:

Code: Select all

\printbibliography[heading=bibintoc,title={Bibliography}]

And putting the References title in its own section