Dashes and Hyphens between Dates (with Examples)

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Dashes between Dates and Numbers

The dash is used between ranges. These are often date ranges. For example:
  • Between times: 1200–1600
  • Between times: 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).

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.
dashes or hyphens in dates and ranges
Got it? Take a quick test.

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– 0930Introduction
0930 –1030Lesson 1
1030 – 1100Coffee
1100 — 1200Lesson 2
1200–1300Lunch
(This is scruffy.)
Here's a tidier version:
With no spaces and consistent dashes:
0900–0930Introduction
0930–1030Lesson 1
1030–1100Coffee
1100–1200Lesson 2
1200–1300Lunch
(This is much tidier.)
Read more about hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes.

It's Safe to Use 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 pull you up 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 If this were to happen, you could make a good case for the pedant being out of date.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.

Getting 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.
NamePunctuationHow 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")

Interactive Exercise
Here are three randomly selected questions from a larger exercise, which can be edited, printed to create an exercise worksheet, or sent via email to friends or students.

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See Also

Using apostrophes Using brackets parentheses Using colons Using commas Using dashes Using hyphens Using quotation marks Using semicolons