This template allows nested references where a reference is included inside a reference. This is mainly useful where content that would normally be in <ref>...</ref> tags is used as an explanatory note and requires a cite using <ref>...</ref>. See WP:REFNOTE for further information on explanatory notes.

This template uses the magic word {{#tag:ref}} to allow the Cite.php parser to pass wikimarkup.

{{refn|name=name|group=groupname|Reference or note including <ref></ref>}}

  • name: Reference name per WP:REFNAME
  • groupname: Groupname per WP:REFGROUP; if not specified, then the main and nested references will be rendered into the same reference list

Names for footnotes and groups must follow these rules:

  • Names are case-sensitive.
  • Names must not be purely numeric; they should have semantic value so that they can be more easily distinguished from each other by human editors.
  • Names must be unique—you may not use the same name to define different groups or footnotes.
  • Please consider keeping reference names simple and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals. Failing that, including if spaces are used, the following technical restrictions become relevant:
    • Quotation marks are optional if the only characters used are letters A–Z, a–z, digits 0–9, and the symbols !$%&()*,-.:;<@[]^_`{|}~. That is, all printable ASCII characters except #"'/=>?\.
    • Inclusion of any other characters, including spaces, requires that the reference name be enclosed in quotes; for example, name="John Smith".
    • The quote marks must be the standard straight keyboard marks ("); curly or other quotes will be parsed as part of the reference name.
    • Quote-enclosed reference names may not include a less-than sign (<) or a double straight quote symbol ("). These may be escaped with &lt; and &quot;, respectively.
  • You may optionally provide reference names even when the reference name is not required. This makes later re-use of the sourced reference easier.
Markup Renders as
An example.{{refn|group=note|name=first|A note.<ref>An included reference.</ref>}}
Another example.{{refn|group=note|Another note.<ref>Another included reference.</ref>}}
A third example fred.{{refn|group=note|The third note.<ref>The reference in the third note.</ref>}}
Repeating the first example.{{refn|group=note|name=first}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
An example.[note १]

Another example.[note २] A third example fred.[note ३] Repeating the first example.[note १]

Notes
  1. १.० १.१ A note.[]
  2. Another note.[]
  3. The third note.[]
References
  1. An included reference.
  2. Another included reference.
  3. The reference in the third note.

If the reference or note content is missing, then "Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content." will be displayed.

Currently, this template may not be used more than once within list-defined references. Doing so will result in Cite errors; see bug 20707http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20707.