Decimal separator

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The decimal separator or decimal point or decimal comma is a symbol used to mark the boundary between the integral and the fractional parts of a decimal number in a positional numeral system.

Different symbols have been and are used for the decimal separator. The choice of symbol for the decimal separator affects the choice of symbol for the thousands separator used in digit grouping. Consequently the latter is treated in this article as well.

The decimal separator is mathematically a radix point. The English term "decimal" is limited to base ten, but the separator in non-decimal numeral systems may be referred to as a radix point. In a binary system, it is sometimes referred to as binary point.

[edit] History

In the Middle Ages, before printing, a bar ( ¯ ) over the units digit was used to separate the integral part of a number from its fractional part, a tradition derived from the decimal system used in Indian mathematics.^[1] Its regular usage and classification can be attributed to the Iranian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi. Later, a separator (ˌ) (a short, roughly vertical, ink stroke) between the units and tenths position became the norm. When this character was typeset, it was convenient to use the existing comma (,) or period (.) instead.

In France, the period was already in use in printing to make Roman numerals more readable, so the comma was chosen. Many other countries also chose to use the comma to mark the decimal units position.^[2] It has been made standard by the ISO for international blueprints. However, English-speaking countries took the comma to separate sequences of three digits.

In the United States, the period (.), which is called a "stop" or "full stop" in some other countries, was used as the standard decimal separator. In the nations of the British Empire, although the period could be used in typewritten material, the point (middle dot: ·), which can also be called an interpunct (often referred to as the decimal point) was preferred for the decimal separator in printing technologies that could accommodate it.^[3] This had the advantage of reducing confusion in the countries that used the period to separate groups of digits and it was generally clearer in handwriting (particularly when writing on a dotted baseline as on many forms). However, as the middle dot was already in common use in the mathematics world to indicate multiplication, the SI rejected this use of the middle dot as the decimal separator. However, the use of the period as decimal separator was not banned. British aviation magazines thus switched to the US form in the late twentieth century.

When South Africa adopted the metric system, it adopted the comma as its decimal separator. The auxiliary language Interlingua has used the comma as its decimal separator since the publication of the Interlingua Grammar in 1951.^[4] Another international auxiliary language, Esperanto, also uses the comma as its official decimal separator.

In 1958, disputes between European and American delegates over the correct representation of the decimal separator nearly stalled the development of the ALGOL language.^[5]

The 22nd General Conference on Weights and Measures declared in 2003 that "the symbol for the decimal marker shall be either the point on the line or the comma on the line." It further reaffirmed that "[n]umbers may be divided in groups of three in order to facilitate reading; neither dots nor commas are ever inserted in the spaces between groups."^[6]

[edit] Digit grouping

For ease of reading, numbers with many digits before or after the decimal separator may be divided into groups using a delimiter, with the counting of groups starting from the decimal separator in both directions.^[7] This delimiter is usually called a thousands separator, because the digits are usually in groups of three, that is, thousands. The most general name for this delimiter is digit group separator, because thousands are not always the relevant group. For example, in various countries (eg, China, India, and Japan), there have been traditional conventions of grouping by 2 or 4 digits. These conventions are still observed in some contexts, although the 3-digit group convention is also well known and often used. Making groups of three digits also emphasizes that there is a base 1000 of the numeral system that is being used (see decimal superbase), which is not always a given (for example, in computer science).

As with the decimal separator, there have been several common conventions for which character to use for the digit group separator. If the decimal separator is a point, the digit group separator is often a comma or a space. If the decimal separator is a comma, the digit group separator is often a point or a space. The problem with the point and the comma as either decimal separator or digit group separator is that, internationally, they have both often been used for both meanings, and their meaning is context-dependent (one must know which notational system is being used in order to interpret them). Therefore the space is recommended in the SI/ISO 31-0 standard,^[8] and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures states that "for numbers with many digits the digits may be divided into groups of three by a thin space, in order to facilitate reading. Neither dots nor commas are inserted in the spaces between groups of three".^[9] Other style-defining bodies are also moving toward this clearer notation. For example, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) suggests to never use a comma or a point as thousands separator: "For numbers with many digits, the digits may be separated in groups of three, counting from the decimal sign toward the left and the right. The groups should be separated by a thin space (half space), and never by a comma or a point, or by any other means."^[10] The American Medical Association, whose AMA Manual of Style is widely followed in health professions literature, also endorses a space for digit group separator.^[7] (Specifically, a thin space is endorsed for typesetting; a regular word space is sufficient wherever typographical nicety is impractical.)

[edit] Exceptions to digit grouping

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures states that "when there are only four digits before or after the decimal marker, it is customary not to use a space to isolate a single digit".^[9] Some manuals of style state that thousands separators should not be used in normal text for numbers from 1000 to 9999 inclusive where no decimal fractional part is shown (in other words, for four-digit whole numbers), whereas others use thousand separators, and others use both. For example, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association stipulates a thousands separator for "most figures of 1,000 or more" except for page numbers, binary digits, temperatures, etc.

There are always common-sense exceptions to digit grouping, such as postal codes, page numbers, and ID numbers of predefined nongrouped format, which style guides usually point out.

[edit] Arabic numeral system

[edit] Examples of use

The following examples show the decimal separator and the thousands separator; the lists are ordered chronologically, by when each country adopted the use:

• In Serbia^{[citation needed]}, Croatia, Bosnia, Estonia, France, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and much of Latin Europe as well as French Canada: 1 234 567,89 (In Spain, in handwriting it is also common to use an upper comma: 1.234.567'89)^{[citation needed]}
• In Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Romania, Sweden and much of Europe: 1 234 567,89 or 1.234.567,89 (in handwriting, 1˙234˙567,89 is also seen^{[citation needed]}, but never in Denmark or Sweden)
• In the Netherlands: for currencies the thousands separator is a dot, e.g. EUR 1.234.567,89, but for other numbers a (narrow) space is used, e.g. 1 234 567,89
• In Switzerland: 1'234'567.89; for thousand separator an apostrophe is used.
• In Australia, English Canada, Israel, Japan, Korea (both), Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the United States: 1,234,567.89 or 1,234,567·89; the latter is more commonly found in older, and especially handwritten, documents; many British and Canadian schools now teach the SI style with a dot separator, which has become official in Australia.
• SI style: 1 234 567.89 or 1 234 567,89 (in their own publications the dot is used in the English version and the comma in the French version).
• In Chinese, comma and space are used to mark digit groups because dot is used as decimal separator. There is no universal convention on digit grouping, so both thousands grouping and no digit grouping can be found. However, grouping can also be done every four digits: 123,4567.89, since names for large numbers in Chinese are based on powers of 10,000 (e.g. the next new word is for 10⁸). Japan is similar.

• In India, due to a numeral system using lakhs (lacs) (1,00,000 equal to 100 000) and crores (1,00,00,000 equal to 10 000 000), comma is used at levels of thousand, lakh and crore, for example, 10 million (1 crore) would be written as 1,00,00,000.

In countries with a decimal comma, the decimal point is also common as the "international" notation because of the influence of devices, such as electronic calculators, which use the decimal point. Most computer operating systems allow selection of the decimal separator and programs that have been carefully internationalised will follow this, but some programs ignore it and a few are even broken by it.

[edit] Countries using Arabic numerals with decimal point

Decimal Separators:
Dot — Blue
Comma — Green
Non-West-Arabic Numerals — Red
Unknown — Grey

Countries where a dot is used to mark the radix point include:

Australia, Brunei, Botswana, Canada (English-speaking), Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Korea (both North and South), Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, People's Republic of China, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States (including insular areas), Zimbabwe.

[edit] Countries using Arabic numerals with decimal comma

Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada (French-speaking), Costa Rica, Croatia (comma used officially, but both forms are in use elsewhere), Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Faroes, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Iceland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg (uses both separators officially), Macau (in Portuguese text), Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa (officially^{[citation needed]}, but dot point is commonly used in business), Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam.

[edit] Other numeral systems

In the Arab world, where Eastern Arabic numerals are used for writing numbers, a different character is used to separate the integer and fractional parts of numbers. It is referred to as Arabic Decimal Separator in Unicode. An Arabic Thousands Separator also exists.

In Persian, the decimal separator is called Momayyez, which is written like a forward slash— there is a small difference between the "comma" character used in sentences and the Momayyez (٫) used to separate sequences of three digits. To separate sequences of three digits, a comma or blank space may be used; however this is not a standard.^[11][12][13]

[edit] See also

• International System of Units
• Algorism

[edit] References