Dashes and Hyphens between Dates

Using Dashes between Ranges (e.g., Date Ranges)

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The dash is used between ranges. These are often date ranges. For example:

Between times: 1200–1600 or 6 am–8 am
Between days: Monday–Friday
Between dates: 12–15 October
Between months: June–August
Between years: 1967–1969

The dash can be used for any range. For example:

Pages 2–4
100–150 people

Your readers will assume that these ranges are inclusive (i.e., that the ranges include the values that bound the ranges).

Table of Contents

Don't Use "From" or "To"
Avoid Using Spaces
Using Hyphens in Ranges
How to Get a Dash
Test Time!

Don't Use "From" or "To"

Don't use the word "from" or "to" if you're using a dash to show a range. If you're not using a dash, then you can use "from" and "to." Don't mix these conventions.

Lunch break is 1200–1300.
Lunch break is from 1200 to 1300.
Lunch break is from 1200–1300.

Avoid Using Spaces

Avoid putting spaces around your dash. This is not a ruling. It is, however, good practice because when you use spaces, your autocorrect will often try to help you by changing your short dash (especially if you've decided to use hyphens) to an em dash (a longer dash, the length of an uppercase "M"). As autocorrect is inconsistent with this "help," you often end up with a mix of en dashes (a shorter dash, the length of a lowercase "n") and long dashes between your ranges.

Using no spaces at all stops autocorrect trying to help you (as it waits for a space before it looks at what you've just typed), and using no spaces also eliminates inconsistencies with spacing. Here's a scruffy example:

With inconsistent spaces and a random long dash:

0900– 0930	Introduction
0930 –1030	Lesson 1
1030 – 1100	Coffee
1100 — 1200	Lesson 2
1200–1300	Lunch

(This is scruffy.)

Here's a tidier version:

With no spaces and consistent dashes:

0900–0930	Introduction
0930–1030	Lesson 1
1030–1100	Coffee
1100–1200	Lesson 2
1200–1300	Lunch

(This is much tidier.)

Using Hyphens in Ranges

Hyphens are not meant to be used for ranges (e.g., 10-12, 1967-1971). Dashes are used for this purpose. However, given that the hyphen is so easy to find on a keyboard, hyphens have become acceptable for ranges. Only a strict grammar pedant would chastise you for using a hyphen in a range. If this were to happen, you could make a good case for the pedant being out of date. Read more about using hyphens.

How to Get a Dash

If you're using a text editor (like Microsoft Word) on your desktop PC, you can get the different dashes via your keyboard's numeric pad.

Name	Punctuation	How To Get One
em dash	—	Ctl + Alt + minus (on the numeric pad)
minus sign	−	minus (on the numeric pad)
en dash	–	Ctl + minus (on the numeric pad)
hyphen	-	- (the key to the right of "0")