Counters

Everything LaTeX numbers for you has a counter associated with it. The name of the counter is often the same as the name of the environment or command associated with the number, except that the counter’s name has no backslash \. Thus, associated with the \chapter command is the chapter counter that keeps track of the chapter number.

Below is a list of the counters used in LaTeX’s standard document classes to control numbering.

part            paragraph       figure          enumi
chapter         subparagraph    table           enumii
section         page            footnote        enumiii
subsection      equation        mpfootnote      enumiv
subsubsection

The mpfootnote counter is used by the \footnote command inside of a minipage (see minipage). The counters enumi through enumiv are used in the enumerate environment, for up to four levels of nesting (see enumerate).

Counters can have any integer value but they are typically positive.

New counters are created with \newcounter. See \newcounter.

• \alph \Alph \arabic \roman \Roman \fnsymbol		Print value of a counter.
• \usecounter		Use a specified counter in a list environment.
• \value		Use the value of a counter in an expression.
• \setcounter		Set the value of a counter.
• \addtocounter		Add a quantity to a counter.
• \refstepcounter		Add to a counter.
• \stepcounter		Add to a counter, resetting subsidiary counters.
• \day & \month & \year		Numeric date values.