 | This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This
essay is currently
orphaned. Few or no
project pages link to this page. This may result in the page having
low readership and little or no improvement. Please help by introducing links to this page from other related project pages. |
 | This page in a nutshell: This essay explains search/sort problems when using the Unicode minus-sign (−) and explains template {{
msym}} to show a keypad-minus in a font appearing like a unicode minus. |
In the Wikipedia Manual of Style, the paragraph "Minus signs" failed to mention the 40-year standard of the minus-key on a numeric keypad, which is what the Wikipedia MediaWiki system uses for negative numbers. The paragraph should have been written to prefer the keypad minus-sign, but to also allow using "−" in some cases:
- Minus signs // "Do not use an en dash for negative signs and subtraction operators: the preferred sign is the minus-key on the numeric keypad of a computer keyboard (same as the hyphen), which has been a keyboard standard for over 40 years, and it is also the result generated by Wikipedia, as in subtracting 9 - 10: {{#expr: 9 - 10}} (to yield "-1"). The unicode character for the minus sign (− as "−") could be used for some display purposes. However, the hyphen is preferred when searching a page for negative numbers (matches keypad "-"), or when calculating negative results in a template, or when sorting numbers."
The use of "−" (during 2007–09) has led to templates generating unusable negative-numbers which will not match a numeric-keypad search, and will NOT sort numerically in sortable tables specified using class="wikitable sortable". However, the WP:MOS standard could be changed in later years, to prefer &minus when the world's keyboards change most numeric keypads, but I don't think that should be stated in the MOS, because of the decades of waiting.
Meanwhile, the template {{ msym}} can be used to alter the font and display a keypad-minus (or hyphen) in a font that appears like a Unicode minus, such as Courier font. Compare the example of "-3" with {{msym}}3 versus −3: "-3" with "{{msym}}3" versus "−3". When searching a page for a hyphen-minus or negative number, then any unicode-minus on the page will fail to match, while any msym-style minus will match.
See also
| This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
|
| This
essay is currently
orphaned. Few or no
project pages link to this page. This may result in the page having
low readership and little or no improvement. Please help by introducing links to this page from other related project pages. |
| This page in a nutshell: This essay explains search/sort problems when using the Unicode minus-sign (−) and explains template {{
msym}} to show a keypad-minus in a font appearing like a unicode minus. |
In the Wikipedia Manual of Style, the paragraph "Minus signs" failed to mention the 40-year standard of the minus-key on a numeric keypad, which is what the Wikipedia MediaWiki system uses for negative numbers. The paragraph should have been written to prefer the keypad minus-sign, but to also allow using "−" in some cases:
- Minus signs // "Do not use an en dash for negative signs and subtraction operators: the preferred sign is the minus-key on the numeric keypad of a computer keyboard (same as the hyphen), which has been a keyboard standard for over 40 years, and it is also the result generated by Wikipedia, as in subtracting 9 - 10: {{#expr: 9 - 10}} (to yield "-1"). The unicode character for the minus sign (− as "−") could be used for some display purposes. However, the hyphen is preferred when searching a page for negative numbers (matches keypad "-"), or when calculating negative results in a template, or when sorting numbers."
The use of "−" (during 2007–09) has led to templates generating unusable negative-numbers which will not match a numeric-keypad search, and will NOT sort numerically in sortable tables specified using class="wikitable sortable". However, the WP:MOS standard could be changed in later years, to prefer &minus when the world's keyboards change most numeric keypads, but I don't think that should be stated in the MOS, because of the decades of waiting.
Meanwhile, the template {{ msym}} can be used to alter the font and display a keypad-minus (or hyphen) in a font that appears like a Unicode minus, such as Courier font. Compare the example of "-3" with {{msym}}3 versus −3: "-3" with "{{msym}}3" versus "−3". When searching a page for a hyphen-minus or negative number, then any unicode-minus on the page will fail to match, while any msym-style minus will match.
See also