Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref too many keys

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Overview

A footnote used multiple times may be defined with a name:

<ref name="foo">content</ref>

Any footnote can be assigned to a group:

<ref group="foobar">content</ref>

Or both:

<o>...</o>content</ref>

Names for footnotes and groups must follow these rules: Names are

• case-sensitive
• Names may not be purely numeric
• Quotes are optional if the only characters used are letters A–Z, a–z, digits 0–9 and the symbols !$%&()*,-.:;<@[]^_`{|}~
• Inclusion of any other characters including spaces requires that the name be enclosed in straight quotes (")
• Quote-enclosed names may not include a less-than sign (<) or a quote symbol (")
• Please consider keeping names simple and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals.
• You may optionally provide names even when the name is not required.

Issues and resolution

A named reference tag has too many names or parameters. A quoteless name such as foo bar will be parsed as two separate names due to the space, thus generating the error. You can only specify two parameters, name and group. You can't, for instance, format a reference with <ref style="color:red;">content</ref>, or give it an id.