081: Thou shall use an en-dash to indicate a range of values

Commentary The use, or misuse, of en-dashes is a common problem in the written content that we are sent. An en-dash should be used when numbers or words that denote a range need to be linked together or to signify an open range. For example, 1939–1945 and 100–200 BCE are examples of the en-dash being used in a closed range. Note that there is no space either side of the en-dash. When typesetting these figures, and if one is using nonaligning numerals, it is worthwhile kerning a little space between the figures and the en-dash so that they don’t look as though they are colliding. An open-ended range would be set as “2011–”; for words that are communicating a range it would look like this “January– December 2011.” PD