Numbers take the en dash
Use it between two numbers in a range, with no spaces: 2018–2022, pages 44–48, 18–22 °C. Do not mix an en dash and a hyphen for the same jobs in one document.
The 2018–2022 period
Copy & paste · Character reference
The en dash (–): copy it, type it, use it for ranges
One click to copy the en dash, plus how to type it everywhere, the range rules it exists for, and how it differs from the em dash and the hyphen.
Or select it by hand
Click the box to select the character, then press Ctrl + C (⌘ + C on Mac).
- Character
- En Dash
- Unicode
- U+2013
- HTML entity
- –
- Plain-text fallback
- -
Every en dash in the character set
The range dash, its digit-width cousin and the true minus sign — three characters that look alike and are not interchangeable.
The en dash (–, Unicode U+2013) is the range mark. It is longer than a hyphen and shorter than an em dash, and its one job is to stand in for “to”, “through” or “between”: 2018–2022, pages 44–48, 10–15 minutes, a 3–0 win, the London–Paris route. Typographers set it half the width of an em, which is where the name comes from.
In print the en dash is correct and expected. In data it is a hazard, because every system that only understands ASCII — spreadsheets, older databases, CSVs, URL slugs, many APIs — treats it as an unknown byte. The same text can look identical on screen and compare as unequal strings, which is why a lookup fails or a numeric column silently imports as text. When the destination is a machine rather than a reader, replace the en dash with a hyphen before the data goes anywhere near it; the replace en dash page does exactly that in one pass.
The en dash also has two look-alikes that matter. The figure dash (‒, U+2012) is exactly one digit wide, so numbers stay in column, and it appears in older typesetting and in PDFs — this site’s tools treat it as an en dash so nothing hides. The minus sign (−, U+2212) is the arithmetic character, correctly aligned with the plus sign, and the right glyph for a negative temperature such as −5 °C; it is not a dash at all, and both of its relatives are on the cards above so you can copy the one you actually need.
How to type an en dash
Keyboard shortcuts for every platform — or skip the typing and copy the character above.
| Platform | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Windows (any app) | Alt + 0150 on the numeric keypad |
| Windows (Word, Outlook) | Ctrl + - (numeric keypad) |
| Mac | Option + - |
| iPhone / Android | Long-press the hyphen key, then pick – |
| Google Docs | Insert → Special characters → search “en dash” |
| Word AutoFormat | Type 2018-2022: Word converts the hyphen as you type |
| HTML / CSS | – or – · content: "\2013" |
| LaTeX | -- (en dash) vs --- (em dash) |
En Dash examples
What the character looks like doing its job — and what changes if you swap in a different dash.
A date range
The survey ran 2018–2022, across four waves.
A page span
See pages 44–48 for the full method.
A score
They won 3–0 and then lost 1–2.
A connection between equals
The London–Paris route runs twice daily.
A compound with an open term
the pre–World War II era, post–Cold War policy
A measurement range
Store at 18–22 °C.
Three rules that cover almost every en dash
Chicago, APA and most house styles agree on these. The fourth case — ranges in digital data — is the one where a hyphen wins.
Ranges of words take “to”
From … to, between … and: when the range is spelled out with a preposition, use the word, not the dash. That is also the cleanest fix for prose.
from 2018 to 2022 · between 10 and 15 minutes
Suspended hyphens get an en dash
When a hyphenated compound shares its last word with another, an en dash can carry the open half — a hybrid style some guides allow for clarity.
dead− and living-wood rules
Data takes a hyphen
Spreadsheets, CSVs, SQL, slugs and APIs expect ASCII. The en dash is outside that set, so replace it before the import and the meaning survives untouched.
2018-2022
Em dash vs en dash vs hyphen
Three characters that look like each other and never behave the same way. Copy the one you need, or read the full reference for each.
Questions
What is an en dash?
The en dash (–, Unicode U+2013) is half the width of an em dash and slightly longer than a hyphen. It marks ranges and connections: 2018–2022, pages 44–48, 3–0, the London–Paris route. In speech it usually reads as “to” or “through”.
How do I copy the en dash?
Click the big card at the top of this page and the en dash is copied to your clipboard, with a confirmation. If copying is blocked, click the box below it to select the character and press Ctrl + C (⌘ + C on Mac).
How do I type an en dash on Windows?
Hold Alt and type 0150 on the numeric keypad. In Word you can also press Ctrl + the minus key on the numeric keypad. Word’s AutoFormat also converts a hyphen between two numbers into an en dash as you type, which is where most stray en dashes come from.
How do I type an en dash on a Mac?
Press Option + minus. Add the Shift key and you get the em dash instead. On iPhone and Android keyboards, long-press the hyphen key and choose the middle-length dash.
En dash vs hyphen — which should a range use?
The en dash is typographically correct for ranges in print: 2018–2022. The hyphen is correct everywhere a machine has to read the text: 2018-2022. If your document is going into a spreadsheet, a database or a website field, use the hyphen — the meaning is identical and nothing breaks.
En dash vs em dash — how do I tell them apart?
Length and job. The em dash (—) is the longest and marks an aside or a break in thought. The en dash (–) is the middle one and marks a range. If the dash could be read aloud as “to”, it should be an en dash; if it introduces a pause in the sentence, it should be an em dash.
Is an en dash the same as a minus sign?
No, though they look similar. The en dash (U+2013) is typographic; the true minus sign (−, U+2212) is the mathematical character, aligned with the plus sign and correctly spaced in equations. For a negative number such as −5 °C, the minus sign is the right choice.
Got too many en dashes?
Paste the text, choose a hyphen, a space or the word “to”, and every en dash is fixed in one pass.
Replace en dashes with hyphens