How Can I Number Subfigures within Sections in Latex?

[ryan88]

Hi,

In my report, I want figures to be numbered within sections, so I put the following in the preamble of my document:

\numberwithin{figure}{section}

This works great, except for when I am referencing subfigures. I have the following code:

\begin{figure}[h]
	\centering
	\subfigure[$f(x)$]{
		\includegraphics[width=0.4\textwidth]{figures/fx}
		\label{fig:fx}
	}
	\subfigure[$\Phi_{50}(x,y)$]{
		\includegraphics[width=0.4\textwidth]{figures/phi_comp}
		\label{fig:phi_comp}
	}
	\caption{$\Phi_{N}(x,y)$ for $N=1,20,50$}
	\label{fig:fx_phi_comp}
\end{figure}
Figure \ref{fig:fx} shows that ...

This produces something like "Figure 2(a) shows that ..." instead of "Figure 4.2(a) shows that ...". I have worked around this by doing the following:

Figure \ref{sec:comparison}.\ref{fig:fx} shows that ...

Where sec:comparison is the label I have applied to the appropriate section.

Is this the only way around this? Or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks,

Ryan

 

[matt grime]

What does altering the subfigure counter do? Something like

\numberwithin{subfigure}{section}

I've never used that numberwithin command, instead I would have defined the figure counter afresh with a \newcounter declaration for subfigures (please don't ask me to work out what it should be on the fly - I googled it and found at least 3 different suggestions for syntax, none of which I can verify as working).

 

[oswaler]

Hello Ryan,

It seems like you are on the right track with your workaround. The \numberwithin{figure}{section} command will number your figures within each section, but it does not affect the numbering of subfigures. In order to have the subfigures also be numbered within the sections, you can use the subcaption package and add the following line to your preamble:
\usepackage{subcaption}

This will allow you to use the command \numberwithin{subfigure}{section} to number your subfigures within each section. So your preamble should now look like this:
\numberwithin{figure}{section}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\numberwithin{subfigure}{section}

This should give you the desired result of "Figure 4.2(a) shows that ..." when referencing your subfigures. Let me know if you have any further questions or if this does not work for you.

Best regards,