natbib, IEEEtran and alphanumeric citation: is there an IEEEtranSAN style available?

As far as I'm aware, there is no such a style as IEEEtranSAN which is compatible with natbib. However, following the recommendation and explanations by @cfr, I've changed to biblatex and biblatex-ieee. The minimum changes are:

\documentclass[a4paper]{report}

%\usepackage[numbers]{natbib}
\usepackage[backend=bibtex,style=ieee-alphabetic,natbib=true]{biblatex} %added
\addbibresource{IEEEfull.bib} %added
\addbibresource{IEEEexample.bib} %added

\begin{document}

\noindent
\citet{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citet[chap. 2]{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citep{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citep[chap. 2]{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citep[see][]{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citep[see][chap. 2]{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citet*{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citep*{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citeauthor{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citeauthor*{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citeyear{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\citeyearpar{IEEEexample:article_typical} \\
\cite{IEEEexample:article_typical}
\nocite{IEEEexample:shellCTANpage}

%\bibliographystyle{IEEEtranSN}
%\bibliography{IEEEfull,IEEEexample}
\printbibliography %added

\end{document}

I get the expected results with any of the citation commands, alphanumeric keys are shown instead of numbers and the style is correct.


Apart from those links in the comments, I think this Q&A is worth checking when considering to change from natbib and bibtex to biblatex and, probably, biber.


This shorter solution worked for me as I wanted to stick with IEEE numeric style but use natbib citation commands using:

\usepackage[backend=biber,style=ieee,natbib=true]{biblatex} 
\renewcommand{\bibfont}{\footnotesize} % for IEEE bibfont size
\addbibresource{bibliography.bib}
...
\printbibliography

I tried backend with biber and bibtex as well as natbib with true and false. Have fun!