Blog / Comparisons
Comparisons
Two characters that look alike and are not. Which one you actually want, and what breaks when you pick the other.
≠ ≤ ≥ vs !=, <= and >= ALGOL 60 wrote its relational operators as ≠, ≤ and ≥; C replaced them with !=, <= and >= because ASCII had no room, and the workaround outlived the constraint. Where each form belongs now, and the normalisation trap that catches ≠ between a web form and a search index. Straight vs curly quotes Straight quotes are for machines and curly quotes are for readers, and your editor picks one for you before you have decided. Where the difference actually bites: JSON and shell commands, CSV exports, SQL names like O'Brien, and search that quietly stops matching. Bullets and shapes: • ‣ ● ○ ⁃ ∙ Six markers that all look like a dot with a job. Which one belongs in a nested outline, which is a maths operator wearing a bullet's clothes, and why typing any of them does not actually make a list. ÷ vs ∕ The international standard for mathematical notation recommends against ÷, for a reason you have probably argued about online. When the obelus still earns its place — and why ∕ is not the slash on your keyboard. ± vs ∓ One of these signs means nothing on its own. What ± is actually claiming — two values, or a margin of error — and why ∓ only ever appears in company. × vs ✕ vs ∗ — the multiplication marks Only one of these three is an arithmetic operator, and it is not the one Unicode named MULTIPLICATION X. Which cross belongs in a dimension, which in a close button, and which in a formula. © vs ℗ vs ™ vs ® Two of these four marks protect creative work and two protect brands, and inside each pair they are not interchangeable. What ©, ℗, ™ and ® each actually claim — and which one you are not allowed to use. Minus sign vs hyphen The key on your keyboard is neither of them. When a hyphen and a real minus sign are genuinely different characters — and why the correct one in prose is the wrong one to put in code. Em dash vs en dash vs hyphen Three strokes, three jobs: the em dash interrupts a sentence, the en dash spans a range, the hyphen binds two words. Here is when to reach for each — and why the key on your keyboard is none of them.