Hyphen-minus
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The hyphen-minus (-) is a character used in digital documents and computing to represent a hyphen (‐) or a minus sign (−).[1] It is present in Unicode as code point U+002D - hyphen-minus; it is also in ASCII with the same value.
The use of one character for hyphen and minus, and sometimes also for en dash, was a compromise made in the early days of fixed-width typewriters and computer displays. However, in proper typesetting and graphic design, there are distinct characters for hyphens, dashes, and the minus sign. Usage of the hyphen-minus nonetheless persists in many contexts, as it is well-known, easy to enter on keyboards, and in the same location in all common character sets.
Most programming languages, restricting themselves to ASCII, use the hyphen-minus, rather than the Unicode character U+2212 − minus sign, for denoting subtraction and negative numbers.
Historically, an em dash is represented by two hyphen-minus signs in succession, or even three in TeX markup. Microsoft Word allows the user to enter an en dash by typing two hyphen-minus signs.
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Jukka K. Korpela (2006). Unicode explained. O'Reilly. p. 382. ISBN 978-0-596-10121-3.
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