Template:Reflist/doc

Template documentation

This page provides documentation for the parent template. It is not meant to be transcluded directly into standard encyclopedia articles.
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox and testcases pages, if they exist.
Please add categories and interwiki links to the bottom of this subpage.

The Reflist template is used to display a list of citations or references generated by the <ref> tags used throughout an article. It is an alternative to the standard <references /> tag, offering additional features such as column formatting and grouping.

Usage

The most basic use of this template is simply: {{Reflist}}

Columns (colwidth)

To display the references in columns, you can specify a column width. The web browser will automatically calculate how many columns can fit based on the screen width. A standard width is 30em.

{{Reflist|30em}} or {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

Grouping

If you are using reference groups (for example, to separate explanatory notes from citations), you can specify the group name:

{{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}} {{Reflist|group=note}}

Defining references inside the template

You can define all your references inside the template using the refs= parameter. This keeps the main article text cleaner:

{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="smith2020">Smith, John (2020). ''Book Title''. Publisher.</ref>
<ref name="doe2021">Doe, Jane (2021). ''Another Book''. Publisher.</ref>
}}

Parameters

1 or colwidth: Specifies the minimum width of the columns (e.g., 30em, 20em).
count: Forces a specific number of columns (e.g., 2, 3). Note: colwidth is generally preferred over count for better mobile compatibility.
group: Displays only references assigned to a specific group.
refs: Used to hold the content of the references.
liststyle: Changes the bullet/number style (e.g., lower-alpha, upper-roman, disc). Default is decimal (1, 2, 3...).