In the standard document classes report and book, figure and table counters are reset after every chapter. On the other hand, article does not reset these counters when a new section is started. The chngcntr package provides the \counterwithin and \counterwithout commands to redefine a counter, by adding or removing a dependency. Through these commands, the behavior of the figure and table counters can be changed.
Continuous figure and table numbering in report/book
The \counterwithout command removes a dependency from a counter and redefines \the’counter’ such that it is printed without the dependency.
Through \counterwithout, the figure and table counters can be changed to continuously number these figures and tables throughout a report or book. The command also redefines the way the counter is printed, such that the chapter number is not shown (e.g. ‘Figure 3’ instead of ‘Figure 1.3′). Redefining \the’counter’ can be omitted through the starred version \counterwithout*.
\usepackage{chngcntr}
\counterwithout{figure}{chapter}
\counterwithout{table}{chapter}
This is what it looks like in the list-of-figures. Chapter headings were added to make it clear where a new chapter is started.
Below is a complete minimal working example.
\documentclass[11pt]{report}
\usepackage{chngcntr}
\counterwithout{figure}{chapter}
\newcommand*\dummyFigure[2]{%
\begin{figure}[ht]\centering\rule{0.4\linewidth}{0.4\linewidth}\caption{#1}\label{#2}\end{figure}
}
\begin{document}
\listoffigures
\chapter{A dummy chapter}
\dummyFigure{A figure}{fig1}
\chapter{Another dummy chapter}
\dummyFigure{Another figure}{fig2}
\end{document}
Per-section figure and table numbering in article
Similarly, a reset-dependency can be added to any counter through \counterwithin. The command also redefines \the’counter’ (e.g. ‘Figure 1.3’ instead of ‘Figure 1’). Again, the package provides a starred version \conterwithin* that does not redefine \the’counter’.
As an example, the \counterwithin command can be used to automatically reset the figure and table counters whenever a new section is started in an article. Also, the command redefines \thefigure to \thesection.\arabic{figure}. Therefore, figure 3 in section 1 will be printed as ‘Figure 1.3’. The same applies to \thetable.
\usepackage{chngcntr}
\counterwithin{figure}{section}
\counterwithin{table}{section}
See the documentation for more information on the chngcntr package.
this
\usepackage{chngcntr} \counterwithout{figure}{chapter}helped me to convert numbering from 1.1 , 1.2 to 1 , 2 that was useful thanks
Thanks for your comment. That’s a neat trick. Best, Tom.
Hi Tom, i have a challenge with my figure numbering, it is so discontinuous.
Please provide a minimal working example for illustration. You may use these lines to simulate figures:
\begin{figure}[ht] \centering \rule{2cm}{2cm} \caption{default1} \end{figure}This was very useful, but how did you add “Chapter 1”, “Chapter 2” and so on?
Hi Manuel,
How to add the chapter to the list of figures and tables is explained in this post.
Cheers, Tom.
Is there away to use normal article type countering for main text, and then, in the appendices, to use section-wise equation counter (iike (A.1), (A.2), (A.3))
This was easy. The amsmath command
\numberwithin{equation}{section}in the middel of the text does it, ie this command does not need to be in the preample.
Hi my problem is very strange. My document is using the article class, but the section numbers are shown for the figures, figure 2.3, instead of figure 4.
chngcntr does not work for me, because
\counterwithout{figure}{chapter}only works for book class, not for article class. Any suggestion? Thanks.Hi Adam,
You would have to provide a minimal working example for me to reproduce the problem.
Thanks,
Tom
I may have to upload or email you my tex file. Anyway to do it? Thanks.
Please just reduce your code to the minimum such that I can reproduce the problem and paste it here. Make sure that if I run it I can see the problem you describe.
Best, tom
Figure 1.1 change 1.1 Figure?
help me
Hi there,
Sorry for the late response. You could set
\figurenameto be empty and print “Figure” with the counter. An example is give below.Best, Tom
\documentclass[11pt]{article} \usepackage[figurename=]{caption} \renewcommand{\thefigure}{\thesection.\arabic{figure} Figure} \begin{document} \section{First} \begin{figure}[ht]\centering\rule{5cm}{5cm}\caption{default}\end{figure} \end{document}Hey, my Problem is that the Figure counter starts with Figure 0.1 ; 0.2 ; 0.3 and so on in the first Section. How can i change it to 1.1 ; 1.2 … in the first Section
Hi Timo,
Is your first section unnumbered? You can manually increase the section counter (see example below).
Best, Tom
\documentclass[11pt]{article} \usepackage{blindtext} \renewcommand{\thefigure}{\arabic{section}.\arabic{figure}} \begin{document} \listoffigures \clearpage \section*{First} \stepcounter{section} \blindtext \begin{figure}[h]\caption{First figure}\end{figure} \clearpage \section{Second} \blindtext \begin{figure}[h]\caption{Second figure}\end{figure} \end{document}