BibSharp

A comprehensive, modern .NET library for BibTeX processing with a clean and intuitive API. BibSharp makes it easy to parse, manipulate, validate, and serialize BibTeX bibliography entries in your .NET applications.

Features

✨ Comprehensive BibTeX Support

Parse BibTeX files and strings with full support for all standard entry types
Support for @string macros and @preamble directives
Handle special characters and LaTeX encoding
Preserve or expand string macros

📝 Intuitive API

Fluent, object-oriented design
Type-safe access to common fields (Title, Author, Year, etc.)
Flexible field access via properties or indexers
Method chaining for convenient entry construction

🔍 Advanced Features

DOI Resolution: Automatically fetch BibTeX entries from DOIs using CrossRef and DOI.org APIs
Citation Formatting: Format entries in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and IEEE styles
Key Generation: Automatically generate citation keys with multiple formats (AuthorYear, AuthorTitleYear, etc.)
Validation: Validate entries against BibTeX standards with detailed error and warning reporting
Entry Matching & Deduplication: Find matching entries and duplicates using DOI, author+title+year matching
Sorting & Comparison: Built-in comparers for sorting by author, year, title, or custom fields
Author Handling: Parse and format author names with support for suffixes (Jr., Sr., III) and multiple formats
Internationalization: Full support for Unicode and LaTeX-encoded special characters with bidirectional conversion
Custom Types: Register custom entry types with required and optional fields
Field Aliases: Map alternative field names for compatibility with different BibTeX variants

⚡ Performance

Async/await support for I/O operations
Streaming parsing for large files
Efficient memory usage

Installation

Install BibSharp via NuGet:

dotnet add package BibSharp

Or via the Package Manager Console:

Install-Package BibSharp

💡 Looking for comprehensive examples? Check out the BibSharp.Demo project! It includes working demonstrations of all major features including DOI resolution, citation formatting (APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE), internationalization, entry matching, sorting, custom fields, and more.

Quick Start

Parsing BibTeX Files

using BibSharp;

// Parse a BibTeX file
var parser = new BibParser();
var entries = parser.ParseFile("references.bib");

// Access entry fields
foreach (var entry in entries)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"{entry.Key}: {entry.Title} ({entry.Year})");
    
    foreach (var author in entry.Authors)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"  - {author.ToDisplayString()}");
    }
}

Creating Entries Programmatically

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Models;

// Create a new article entry
var entry = new BibEntry("article")
{
    Key = "smith2025",
    Title = "A Comprehensive Study of BibTeX Processing",
    Journal = "Journal of Computer Science",
    Year = 2025,
    Volume = 42,
    Number = "1",
    Pages = new PageRange(123, 145)
};

// Add authors
entry.AddAuthor(new Author("Smith", "John", "Q."));
entry.AddAuthor(new Author("Doe", "Jane"));

// Convert to BibTeX
string bibtex = entry.ToBibTeX();
Console.WriteLine(bibtex);

Output:

@article{smith2025,
  author = {Smith, John Q. and Doe, Jane},
  title = {A Comprehensive Study of BibTeX Processing},
  journal = {Journal of Computer Science},
  year = {2025},
  volume = {42},
  number = {1},
  pages = {123--145}
}

Parsing BibTeX Strings

using BibSharp;

// Parse a single entry
var entry = BibEntry.Parse(@"
@article{smith2025,
  author = {Smith, John},
  title = {My Article},
  year = {2025}
}");

// Try parse without exceptions
if (BibEntry.TryParse(bibTexString, out var parsedEntry))
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Parsed: {parsedEntry.Title}");
}

// Parse multiple entries
var entries = BibEntry.ParseAll(multipleBibTexString);

Resolving DOIs

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Utilities;

// Fetch a BibTeX entry from a DOI (with cancellation support)
var entry = await BibEntry.FromDoiAsync("10.1145/3377811.3380330");

if (entry != null)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Title: {entry.Title}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Authors: {string.Join(", ", entry.Authors.Select(a => a.ToDisplayString()))}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Year: {entry.Year}");
    Console.WriteLine($"DOI: {entry.Doi}");
    
    // Generate BibTeX
    Console.WriteLine(entry.ToBibTeX());
}

// With cancellation token
using var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
cts.CancelAfter(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));
var entryWithCancel = await BibEntry.FromDoiAsync("10.1145/3377811.3380330", cts.Token);

// For custom configuration (timeout, rate limiting), create a DoiResolver instance
var resolver = new DoiResolver(timeoutSeconds: 60, minRequestDelayMs: 200);
var customEntry = await resolver.ResolveDoiAsync("10.1145/3377811.3380330", cts.Token);

// DOI resolver accepts various formats:
// - "10.1145/3377811.3380330"
// - "https://doi.org/10.1145/3377811.3380330"
// - "doi:10.1145/3377811.3380330"

// Setting DOI on an entry (works automatically with implicit conversion)
var manualEntry = new BibEntry("article")
{
    Doi = "10.1145/3377811.3380330"  // Implicitly converts string to Doi struct
};

// Or explicitly
manualEntry.Doi = new Doi("10.1145/3377811.3380330");

// Access DOI as URL
Console.WriteLine(manualEntry.Doi?.Url);  // "https://doi.org/10.1145/3377811.3380330"

Formatting Citations

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Utilities;

var entry = new BibEntry("article")
{
    // ... set fields ...
};

// Format in different citation styles
string apa = entry.ToFormattedString(CitationStyle.APA);
string mla = entry.ToFormattedString(CitationStyle.MLA);
string chicago = entry.ToFormattedString(CitationStyle.Chicago);
string harvard = entry.ToFormattedString(CitationStyle.Harvard);
string ieee = entry.ToFormattedString(CitationStyle.IEEE);

Validating Entries

using BibSharp;

var entry = new BibEntry("article")
{
    Title = "My Article",
    Year = 2025
};

var result = entry.Validate();

if (!result.IsValid)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Validation errors:");
    foreach (var error in result.Errors)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"  - {error}");
    }
}

if (result.HasWarnings)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Warnings:");
    foreach (var warning in result.Warnings)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"  - {warning}");
    }
}

Generating Citation Keys

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Models;
using BibSharp.Utilities;

var entry = new BibEntry("article")
{
    Title = "Study of Modern Software",
    Year = 2025
};
entry.AddAuthor(new Author("Smith", "John"));

// Generate a citation key
string key = entry.GenerateKey(
    BibKeyGenerator.KeyFormat.AuthorTitleYear,
    setKeyAutomatically: true
);

Console.WriteLine($"Generated key: {entry.Key}"); // "smithstudy2025"

// Batch generate keys for multiple entries
var entries = new List<BibEntry> { entry, /* ... */ };
var keyMap = BibEntry.RegenerateKeys(
    entries, 
    format: BibKeyGenerator.KeyFormat.AuthorYear,
    preserveExistingKeys: true
);

// Available key formats:
// - AuthorYear: "smith2025"
// - AuthorTitleYear: "smithstudy2025"
// - AuthorTitleYearShort: "smistud2025"
// - AuthorJournalYear: "smithjcs2025"

Serializing to Files

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Models;
using BibSharp.Utilities;

var entries = new List<BibEntry> { /* your entries */ };

var serializer = new BibSerializer(new BibSerializerSettings
{
    FieldOrder = new[] { "author", "title", "journal", "year" },
    Indent = "  ",
    AuthorFormat = AuthorFormat.LastNameFirst,
    UseBracesForFieldValues = true,
    Encoding = BibEncoding.Unicode,
    LineEnding = LineEnding.Lf
});

// Serialize to file
serializer.SerializeToFile(entries, "output.bib");

// Or to string
string bibtex = serializer.Serialize(entries);

Searching, Filtering, and Matching

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Extensions; // For extension methods
using BibSharp.Utilities;

var parser = new BibParser();
var entries = parser.ParseFile("references.bib");

// Extension methods for improved discoverability
var duplicates = entries.FindDuplicates(); // Extension method
var sortedByAuthor = entries.SortByAuthor(); // Extension method
var sortedByYear = entries.SortByYear(descending: true); // Extension method
var sortedByTitle = entries.SortByTitle(); // Extension method

// Find matching entries across collections
var entry = entries.First();
var otherEntries = parser.ParseFile("other.bib");
var match = entry.FindMatch(otherEntries); // Extension method - uses DOI, authors+title+year, etc.

// Traditional API (still available for advanced scenarios)
var sortedByAuthorOld = entries.OrderBy(e => e, BibComparer.ByAuthor()).ToList();
var sortedByYearOld = entries.OrderBy(e => e, BibComparer.ByYear(descending: true)).ToList();

// Chain multiple sort criteria
var sorted = entries.OrderBy(e => e, BibComparer.Chain(
    BibComparer.ByAuthor(),
    BibComparer.ByYear(descending: true)
)).ToList();

// Filter using LINQ (System.Linq)
var recentPapers = entries.Where(e => e.Year >= 2020).ToList();
var smithPapers = entries.Where(e => 
    e.Authors.Any(a => a.LastName.Contains("Smith", System.StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
).ToList();

Working with Special Characters

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Utilities;

// Parse entries with special characters
var parser = new BibParser(new BibParserSettings
{
    ConvertLatexToUnicode = true  // Convert LaTeX to Unicode
});

var entries = parser.ParseString(@"
@article{test2025,
  author = {M{\"u}ller, Hans},
  title = {Caf{\'e} Science}
}");

Console.WriteLine(entries[0].Authors[0].LastName); // "Müller"
Console.WriteLine(entries[0].Title); // "Café Science"

// Serialize with LaTeX encoding
var serializer = new BibSerializer(new BibSerializerSettings
{
    Encoding = BibEncoding.LaTeX  // Use LaTeX encoding
});

string latex = serializer.Serialize(entries);
// Output: author = {M{\"u}ller, Hans}, title = {Caf{\'e} Science}

Working with Keywords and Months

using BibSharp;

var entry = new BibEntry("article");

// Working with keywords
entry.Keywords = "machine learning, neural networks";
var keywords = entry.GetKeywordList(); // Returns ["machine learning", "neural networks"]
entry.AddKeyword("deep learning");
entry.SetKeywordList(new[] { "AI", "ML", "DL" });

// Working with months
entry.SetMonthByNumber(3, useAbbreviation: true); // Sets to "mar"
int? monthNumber = entry.GetMonthAsNumber(); // Returns 3

// Clone entries
var clonedEntry = entry.Clone();

// Access and manipulate fields
entry["custom-field"] = "custom value";
var allFields = entry.GetFields();
var fieldNames = entry.GetFieldNames();
entry.RemoveField("abstract");

// Check field existence
if (entry.HasField("doi"))
{
    Console.WriteLine($"DOI: {entry.Doi}");
}

Async Operations

using BibSharp;

var parser = new BibParser();

// Parse asynchronously
var entries = await parser.ParseFileAsync("large_bibliography.bib");

// Stream large files
await foreach (var entry in parser.ParseFileStreamAsync("huge_bibliography.bib"))
{
    // Process entries one at a time without loading all into memory
    Console.WriteLine($"Processing: {entry.Key}");
}

// Serialize asynchronously
var serializer = new BibSerializer();
await serializer.SerializeToFileAsync(entries, "output.bib");

Supported Entry Types

BibSharp supports all standard BibTeX entry types:

@article - Journal or magazine article
@book - Published book
@inproceedings / @conference - Conference paper
@incollection - Part of a book with its own title
@inbook - Part of a book (chapter, section, pages)
@booklet - Printed work without a named publisher
@phdthesis - Ph.D. thesis
@mastersthesis - Master's thesis
@techreport - Technical report
@manual - Technical manual
@proceedings - Conference proceedings
@unpublished - Unpublished work
@misc - Miscellaneous

Standard Fields

BibSharp provides type-safe properties for all standard BibTeX fields:

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Models;

var entry = new BibEntry("article")
{
    // Bibliographic information
    Title = "Article Title",
    Journal = "Journal Name",
    BookTitle = "Book Title", // For inproceedings, incollection
    
    // Publication details
    Year = 2025,
    Volume = 42,
    Number = "3",
    Pages = new PageRange(10, 25),
    Month = "mar",
    
    // Publisher information
    Publisher = "Publisher Name",
    Address = "City, Country",
    Edition = "2nd",
    Series = "Series Name",
    
    // Institutional
    Institution = "Institution Name",
    School = "University Name",
    Organization = "Organization Name",
    
    // Identifiers
    Doi = "10.1234/example",
    Url = "https://example.com",
    Isbn = "978-0-123456-78-9",
    Issn = "1234-5678",
    Arxiv = "2101.12345",
    
    // Additional information
    Note = "Additional notes",
    Keywords = "keyword1, keyword2",
    Abstract = "Abstract text",
    Language = "english",
    Copyright = "© 2025",
    Annote = "Annotations",
    
    // Entry-specific
    Chapter = "3",
    Type = "PhD thesis",
    HowPublished = "Online"
};

Custom Entry Types and Field Aliases

BibSharp supports custom entry types and field aliases:

using BibSharp;

// Register a custom entry type
BibEntry.RegisterCustomType(
    entryType: "dataset",
    requiredFields: new[] { "author", "title", "year", "url" },
    optionalFields: new[] { "version", "doi", "publisher" }
);

// Create an entry with the custom type
var dataset = new BibEntry("dataset")
{
    Key = "mydataset2025",
    Title = "Research Dataset",
    Year = 2025,
    Url = "https://example.com/dataset"
};

// Register field aliases for compatibility (e.g., for biblatex compatibility)
BibEntry.RegisterFieldAlias("journaltitle", "journal");
BibEntry.RegisterFieldAlias("location", "address");

Advanced Configuration

Parser Settings

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Utilities;

var settings = new BibParserSettings
{
    PreserveComments = true,            // Keep comments from the file
    StrictMode = false,                 // Gracefully handle malformed entries
    ExpandStringMacros = true,          // Expand @string macros
    ConvertLatexToUnicode = true,       // Convert LaTeX to Unicode
    AutoCorrectCommonErrors = true,     // Fix common BibTeX errors
    PreserveFieldOrder = true,          // Preserve original field order
    NormalizeAuthorNames = true,        // Normalize author name formats
    NormalizeMonths = true              // Normalize month values
};

var parser = new BibParser(settings);

Serializer Settings

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Models;
using BibSharp.Utilities;

var settings = new BibSerializerSettings
{
    Indent = "    ",                              // 4 spaces
    FieldOrder = new[] { "author", "title" },    // Order fields
    Encoding = BibEncoding.LaTeX,                // LaTeX or Unicode
    LineEnding = LineEnding.Lf,                  // Lf, Crlf, or SystemDefault
    UseBracesForFieldValues = true,              // Use {} instead of ""
    ValidateBeforeSerialization = true,          // Validate before writing
    AuthorFormat = AuthorFormat.LastNameFirst,   // Author name format
    WrapLongFields = true,                       // Wrap long values
    MaxFieldLength = 80                          // Max line length
};

var serializer = new BibSerializer(settings);

API Documentation

For detailed API documentation, use IntelliSense in your IDE. All public types and methods include comprehensive XML documentation with examples and usage notes.

Examples

Check out the BibSharp.Demo project for more comprehensive examples including:

DOI resolution and metadata fetching
Citation formatting in multiple styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE)
International character handling and LaTeX encoding
Entry matching and duplicate detection
Sorting and comparison
Custom field handling
Batch key generation
Keyword and month manipulation

Error Handling

BibSharp uses specific exceptions for different error scenarios:

using BibSharp;
using BibSharp.Exceptions;
using BibSharp.Utilities;

try
{
    var parser = new BibParser(new BibParserSettings { StrictMode = true });
    var entries = parser.ParseFile("references.bib");
}
catch (BibParseException ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Parse error at line {ex.LineNumber}, column {ex.ColumnNumber}: {ex.Message}");
}

try
{
    var entry = new BibEntry("article");
    var result = entry.Validate();
    
    if (!result.IsValid)
    {
        // Handle validation errors
        foreach (var error in result.Errors)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Validation error: {error}");
        }
    }
    
    var serializer = new BibSerializer(new BibSerializerSettings 
    { 
        ValidateBeforeSerialization = true 
    });
    serializer.Serialize(new[] { entry });
}
catch (BibValidationException ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Validation failed for entry '{ex.EntryKey}'");
    foreach (var error in ex.ValidationErrors)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"  - {error}");
    }
}

Thread Safety

BibSharp is designed with thread safety in mind:

BibEntry: Thread-safe for read operations after construction. The static methods RegisterCustomType() and RegisterFieldAlias() use concurrent collections and are safe to call from multiple threads. Modification operations require external synchronization.
BibParser: Not thread-safe. Create separate parser instances for concurrent parsing operations.
BibSerializer: Not thread-safe. Create separate serializer instances for concurrent serialization operations.
DoiResolver: Thread-safe for instance methods with per-instance rate limiting.

Best Practices:

For concurrent operations, create separate instances of parsers and serializers per thread
Use instance-based DoiResolver with dependency injection for better testability and thread safety
For concurrent read access to BibEntry, construct and populate entries before sharing across threads

Requirements

.NET Standard 2.1 or higher
Compatible with .NET 5.0+, .NET Core 3.1+, and .NET Framework 4.8+

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Development Setup

Prerequisites: .NET 9.0 SDK or later

Build and test:

dotnet build                    # Build solution
dotnet test                     # Run all tests
dotnet pack -c Release          # Create NuGet package

Project structure:

BibSharp/ - Main library (target: .NET Standard 2.1)
BibSharp.Tests/ - Unit tests (xUnit)
BibSharp.Demo/ - Usage examples

Before submitting a PR:

Add tests for new functionality
Ensure all tests pass (dotnet test)
Add XML documentation for public APIs
Update README with examples if adding user-facing features

Test Coverage

BibSharp has a comprehensive test suite with 1000+ passing tests achieving 80+% line coverage.

Coverage Highlights

100% coverage: Core structs (EntryType, FieldName, Month), Models (PageRange, ValidationResult), BibTexEncoder, Settings, Exception classes
Excellent coverage (>95%): BibEntry, BibSerializer, BibComparer
Strong coverage (>90%): Author, BibEntryMatcher, BibKeyGenerator
Good coverage (>80%): BibParser, BibSerializerSettings

What's Tested

✅ All 14 standard BibTeX entry types
✅ All 32 standard fields and field aliases
✅ Complex author name parsing (suffixes, middle names, multiple authors)
✅ String macros, preambles, and comments
✅ Citation formatting (Chicago, MLA, APA, Harvard, IEEE)
✅ Unicode and LaTeX character encoding (100+ special characters)
✅ Async operations and streaming
✅ Entry validation, matching, and deduplication
✅ Key generation (4 formats)
✅ Round-trip parsing and serialization

Run tests with:

dotnet test
dotnet test --collect:"XPlat Code Coverage"  # With coverage report

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 12 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
BibSharp.Demo		BibSharp.Demo
BibSharp.Tests		BibSharp.Tests
BibSharp		BibSharp
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitignore		.gitignore
BibSharp.sln		BibSharp.sln
Directory.Build.props		Directory.Build.props
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md

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AndreyAkinshin/BibSharp

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BibSharp

Features

Installation

Quick Start

Parsing BibTeX Files

Creating Entries Programmatically

Parsing BibTeX Strings

Resolving DOIs

Formatting Citations

Validating Entries

Generating Citation Keys

Serializing to Files

Searching, Filtering, and Matching

Working with Special Characters

Working with Keywords and Months

Async Operations

Supported Entry Types

Standard Fields

Custom Entry Types and Field Aliases

Advanced Configuration

Parser Settings

Serializer Settings

API Documentation

Examples

Error Handling

Thread Safety

Requirements

Contributing

Development Setup

Test Coverage

Coverage Highlights

What's Tested

License

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