Template:Double+single
"'
 | This template is used on approximately 4,400 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them. |
 | This template should not be used in citation templates such as Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2, because it includes markup that will pollute the COinS metadata they produce; see Wikipedia:COinS. |
Usage
The {{" '}} template (or {{Double+single}} in long form) is for use at the beginning of a 'single-quoted' quotation that also begins a "double-quoted" quotation (or a double-quoted passage that begins with an apostrophe). Its purpose is to slightly space the double and single quotation marks apart for legibility, without actually inserting a space character. It does this with CSS, and does so because the insertion of an extranous space character of any kind would be a violation of the semantic integrity of the web content of the article or other page in which it appeared.
- Example (with highlighting added for clarity)
- Using the template:
Gonzales added, {{" '}}Interesting times' is quite a euphemism for this chaos."
- Gonzales added, "'Interesting times' is quite a euphemism for this chaos."
- For comparison, here is the completely unspaced version:
Gonzales added, "'Interesting times' is quite a euphemism for this chaos."
- Gonzales added, "'Interesting times' is quite a euphemism for this chaos."
- And here is the version with a semantically incorrect non-breaking space character:
Gonzales added, " 'Interesting times' is quite a euphemism for this chaos."
- Gonzales added, " 'Interesting times' is quite a euphemism for this chaos."
- When rendered, the non-breaking-spaced version looks similar to or the same as the template version, but improperly mixes content and presentation.
The equivalent template when used inside a template parameter that automatically provides double quotes (e.g. |title= in {{cite web}}) is {{-'}} (Template:Space+single). See also {{' "}} and {{'-}} for the right-hand side versions (manual and parameter, respectively).