Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text

Category	Pages with broken reference names
System message page	Cite error references no text Note: this box will always show the "en — English" version of the message

Overview

Further information: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (footnotes)

A footnote used multiple times may be defined with a name:

<ref name="foo">content</ref>

To invoke a named footnote:

<ref name="foo" />

References may also be defined within the reference list. Here is a correct example:

{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=rename1>refcontent1</ref>
<ref name=rename2>refcontent2</ref>
<ref name=rename3>refcontent3</ref>
<ref name=rename4>refcontent4</ref>
}}

Issues and resolution

A named reference was invoked but never defined. The reference may be defined inline or in the reference list. You may have misspelled the reference name, or used special characters that look the same but are actually different. For instance, <ref name="foo-bar">content</ref> and <ref name="foo–bar">content</ref> are not the same: one contains a hyphen while the other uses an ndash. To avoid this sort of error, try to use only the characters available on the standard keyboard.

You may have also invoked a reference but never defined it, for example: <ref name="foo–bar">...</ref> or <ref name="foo–bar" />.

The full reference may have been removed from the article with other content, such as when removing information under BLP concerns. In this case the text of the reference will be available in the page history, and you can convert the single <ref /> tag into a full reference.

List-defined references may have this error if:

• The closing </ref> tag is missing or malformed. This would normally result in a Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag; see the help page message, but the missing tag causes the reference to "eat" the reference following in the list. Since that reference is undefined, the Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named $1; see the help page. for both references. This can be very confusing, as the order of references in the list may not match the order used in the content.
• If {{reflist}} is used and the |refs= parameter is missing or malformed.

Examples

Standard

Here the reference named minim is invoked, but never defined:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.<ref name=ipsum>Reference 1</ref> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref name=minim/> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.<ref name=duis>Reference 3</ref>Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

==References==
{{reflist}}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

References

Now minim appears to be defined, but the / actually invokes the reference before the definition; note that the closing </ref> shows:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.<ref name=ipsum>Reference 1</ref> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref name=minim/>Reference 2</ref> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.<ref name=duis>Reference 3</ref>Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

==References==
{{reflist}}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.Reference 2</ref> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

References

List-defined references

Here, the referenced named excepteur is improperly closed— it causes the reference following in the list named ipsum to not close, thus both references show an error:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.<ref name=ipsum/> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref name=minim/> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.<ref name=duis/> Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.<ref name=excepteur/> Curabitur pretium tincidunt lacus.

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=duis>duis</ref>
<ref name=excepteur>excepteur<ref>
<ref name=ipsum>ipsum</ref>
<ref name=minim>minim</ref>
}}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Curabitur pretium tincidunt lacus.

References