Help:Footnotes



This page explains how to create footnotes when editing an article. Footnotes appear automatically in a numbered list at the end of an article when you use two small pieces of code in the text:  within the text, and at the end of the article where the footnote list is to appear. (These pieces of code are called tags.)

The most common use of footnotes in Wikipedia articles is to provide references (inline citations), although footnotes can also be used for other purposes.

This page concerns technical methods for creating footnotes. For policy about the need for citations and choice of sources to cite, see Verifiability. For how to format the citations, see Citing sources. For another method of presenting inline citations, see Parenthetical references.

Overview
Footnoting is an automated system. The footnoting system involves two elements: The text of a footnote is placed in the page's editable text, between  tags, at the point where the footnote marker is to appear. The list of footnotes is generated using the  tag (or a corresponding template), placed in the editable text at the point where the footnotes are to appear. If the page contains footnote markers but no footnote list, a red warning message will appear.
 * Footnote markers. These are links, usually in the form [1], [2], etc. Clicking on a footnote marker will take you to the correspondingly numbered footnote.
 * The footnotes themselves. These appear in a list (usually placed near the end of the article), and include links back to the corresponding footnote markers.

Creating a footnote
At the point in the page text where the footnote marker is to appear, enter the text of the footnote and put the two pieces of coding before and after the footnote-text, like this:



This will create a footnote marker (automatically numbered). The footnote text itself will appear in the footnote list, generated as described in the next section. If there is no footnote list code, a red warning message will appear, reminding you to write the code that generates the list.

You can include formatting and links in a footnote in the usual way, although note that certain features, such as the pipe trick and template substitution, will not work in footnotes. For the formatting of references, a number of templates, such as a generic citation, or more specific cite book, cite web, etc., are available (see Citation templates), although many editors prefer not to use them. See Citing sources for details on how references can be structured.

To aid readability in the edit window, a single newline can be added after the closing  tag before continuing with the text of the paragraph (this will not affect the resulting display).

Creating the footnote list
At the point where you want the text of the footnotes to appear (usually at the end of the article in a section titled "Notes" or "References" – see the Layout guideline), write the following piece of code:



A commonly used alternative, which also introduces some formatting, is to use the Reflist template:



This template has parameters available for splitting the list into columns, and for controlling their width. For example, creates a list split into two columns. For more options, see the template documentation.

If a footnote list is generated but there are no footnotes on the page, the list will simply appear empty (no warning or error message is displayed). Notice that the footnote list must come after all the footnotes.

Multiple references to the same footnote
It is possible to refer to the same footnote more than once, i.e. to generate several footnote markers, all with the same number, which link to the same footnote. To achieve this, named footnotes (named references) are used.

A footnote is named using the  parameter of the   tag. Choose a name (such as "Perry"), and then at one of the footnote marker points (it makes sense to choose the first), enter the footnote like this:



Then you can create another identical marker linking to the same footnote from any other point in the text, by entering the following (note the final slash):



The footnote name is internal and will not be displayed anywhere when the page is viewed. Footnote names are case sensitive and may not be a numeric integer. The quotes are optional unless the name or group includes a space, or certain punctuation marks and other characters. It is recommended that names be kept simple and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals.

Be careful when deleting text containing named footnotes – if you delete the instance which contains the footnote text, without replacing it elsewhere, you will break other instances of the same named footnote on the page. Error messages will be generated if the named footnotes used have not been properly defined.

What it looks like
When a page with footnotes is displayed in a browser, the  tags in the main text are converted to auto-numbered superscripts, like this:

Clicking on a numbered superscript takes you straight to the text of the corresponding footnote. (The "[citation needed]" item is not a footnote marker; it is produced by the fact template, used to indicate a point where a reference ought to be provided.)

The


 * }

The above code will be displayed as follows:

This part of the text requires clarification, whereas the entire text is cited.

Notes

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

This can also be done using the Reflist template with a refs parameter. If desired, the group parameter can be used to group references for the template:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes. How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts.

Embedding references within footnotes
A  code cannot be embedded within another   code, which is a problem when you wish to place a reference within an explanatory footnote. Parenthetical referencing is commonly used as a workaround. However, the  magic word supports references within footnotes. It is available in the "Wiki markup" edit window. The full syntax is, where   is the full text of the footnote, which can now include   tags in the normal way. The "group" and "name" parameters are optional.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.