Keep % sign during LaTeX to unicode conversion in abstracts in biblatex mode

[crystalfp]

JabRef 4.0-beta3
Windows 7 6.1 amd64
Java 1.8.0_144

Load the following database:

% Encoding: UTF-8

@Article{Caspi2016,
  author       = {Avshalom Caspi and Renate M. Houts and Daniel W. Belsky and Honalee Harrington and Sean Hogan and Sandhya Ramrakha and Richie Poulton and Terrie E. Moffitt},
  title        = {Childhood forecasting of a small segment of the population with large economic burden},
  journaltitle = {Nature Human Behaviour},
  date         = {2016},
  volume       = {1},
  number       = {1},
  pages        = {0005},
  doi          = {10.1038/s41562-016-0005},
  abstract     = {A segment comprising 22\% of the cohort accounted for 36\% of the cohort’s injury insurance claims; 40\% of excess obese kilograms; 54\% of cigarettes smoked; 57\% of hospital nights; 66\% of welfare benefits; 77\% of fatherless child-rearing; 78\% of prescription fills; and 81\% of criminal convictions.},
}

@Comment{jabref-meta: databaseType:biblatex;}

I had to quote all percent signs in the abstract, otherwise I receive errors from latex compilation (even if I don't use or display the abstract).

Now, in the preview window the % is rendered as %

If I run "Cleanup entries..." with active "Run field formatter" it changes every \% into %. This forces me to manually edit the entry reinstating the quote. The only positive effect is that without the quote in the preview window the % sign is rendered correctly.

Note. Maybe the problem is shared with biblatex that should ignore the abstract content if not needed.

[lenhard]

Well that depends on what field formatters you run. I just tried the default (normalize date, normalize page, normalize month), then it doesn't change the percentage sign.

If you use a "Latex to something" formatter, like for example Latex to unicode, then that formatter will replace all Latex commands. For \% that's %, so the expect result would be what you describe. To sum up, please check which field formatters you are running.

[crystalfp]

Same problem with "Latex to Unicode" and the other cleanup entries settings:

I need to have the database ready for biblatex, maybe this makes a difference?

Let me notice that I also reported a problem that appears before I use the cleanup function: the % in the preview window.

[crystalfp]

Yes, it is true that, if I push reset and thus have the same configuration as your, the entry is not changed. But it is still previewed as %
As I stated before, I need to cleanup entries for biblatex. For this I pushed the "Recommended for biblatex" button.
Thanks for all your work!
mario

[lenhard]

Ok, let me clarify:

1. The cleanup formatters: Any formatter that translates from LaTeX to something else will do this removal. This is intentional and not a bug. It happens to you because the LaTeX to Unicode formatter is configured for the abstract. This one is in the recommendations for biblatex, because biblatex can deal with UTF-8 (something which BibTeX can't). So you usually don't need to LaTeX-encode things in biblatex, it can deal with all the special symbols. Maybe you've discovered a case where this does not work (and then we should remove the formatter from the recommendations), I am not sure since I do not use biblatex myself. Anyway, you can easily solve your problem by removing the abstract: LaTeX to Unicode from the formatters in your setting.

2. Regarding the entry preview: The &percent is also desired. In Options -> Preferences -> Entry Preview you can configure how the preview panel looks like. By default it apples "HTMLChars" to the abstract field, meaning that it will replace certain chars by their HTML representation. For % that's &percent.

TL&DR: We need to check if we should remove abstract: LaTeX to Unicode from the recommendations for biblatex.

[Siedlerchr]

I think you need to run LatexCleanup, I remember a similar issue we had #2451

[koppor]

I think, we should keep \% in the conversion as it is an escaped symbol and should be treated like that. Compromise: Do like that in biblatex mode, but in bibtex mode, replace it by %.

Reasoning: bibtex has no issues with % , but biblatex/biber has.

[crystalfp]

I agree koppor!

[genodeftest]

@lenhard wrote

TL&DR: We need to check if we should remove abstract: LaTeX to Unicode from the recommendations for biblatex.

This issue affects any field. I'm seeing the same issue with a subtitle containing a percent sign.

[ilippert]

same issue, I think, under
JabRef 5.2--2020-12-13--931c4cb
Linux 5.9.13-200.fc33.x86_64 amd64
Java 15.0.1
with % sign in field annote: biblatex cannot compile well with that sign within an abstract.

[github-actions]

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