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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 August 10

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August 10

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Should you use a dash or an en-dash?

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When you list two years together, should you place in between the two years a dash or an en-dash? For example:

  • At the 1st Academy Awards (1927-1928), the Best Actor was Emil Jannings. (dash)
  • At the 1st Academy Awards (1927–1928), the Best Actor was Emil Jannings. (en-dash)

Also: Are there -- or are there not -- blank spaces on either side of the dash/en-dash?

Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 19:26, 10 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

You should use an en dash (see MOS:ENDASH), not a hyphen as in your first example. No spaces around it. Deor (talk) 19:46, 10 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Deor: OK. Thanks. So, my second example is correct, in terms of both the dash (actually, the en-dash) and the spacing? Correct? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 20:51, 10 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
So it would seem, at least for this particular context. When giving full birth and death dates, as in our bio articles, the convention seems to be to leave a space on either side of it. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:28, 11 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
As the MOS says, when an en dash is used between things that themselves contain word spaces (such as full dates in month/day/year or day/month/year format), spaces are used around the en dash. Spaces are also used when an en dash is used as sentence punctuation, equivalent to an em dash. Deor (talk) 03:54, 11 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
If we're talking about style in Wikipedia, the relevant reference is WP:MOSNUM#Ranges. 1927–1928 is correct, but since it is a pair of consecutive years, 1927–28 is also correct and I would say preferable. Other publications may have different style rules. --76.69.116.4 (talk) 01:41, 11 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The problem with that pedantic dash rule is if you want to search "2018–19 Golden State Warriors season", for example, you have to find a dash somewhere and paste it in. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:56, 11 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
No you don't, since the hyphen-version title redirects to the en-dash version article. Indeed, MOS:DASH explicitly states: "In article titles, do not use a hyphen (-) as a substitute for an en dash, for example in eye–hand span (since eye does not modify hand). Nonetheless, to aid searching and linking, provide a redirect with hyphens replacing the en dash(es), as in eye-hand span. Similarly, provide category redirects for categories containing dashes." Deor (talk) 18:49, 11 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Assuming someone remembers to do it. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:56, 11 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Searching within an article is an issue in any case. If you type "2018-19" into the browser's search box, it's not going to find mentions of the "2018–19" season. Personally I abhor all uses of en dashes—but this is not the place to engage in such debate, so I'll delete that remark before posting. --76.69.116.4 (talk) 02:09, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe if you're using one of those computers that inexplicably don't provide a single keystroke for the en dash, and you lack access to the wiki editor's character menu. —Tamfang (talk) 14:06, 17 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:46, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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