Post date: Jul 22, 2017 5:46:36 PM
Question: Consider the following overview of an individual's profile:
Name: John Smith
Age: 29
Marital status: Single
Spouse's Name: -
The dash given as "Spouse's Name" indicates that there is no name, because there is no spouse. What is the correct character to use for this dash?
Answer: A dash or hyphen is a symbol commonly used in tables to represent absence of information. Depending on context, it is an abbreviation for "missing data", "not applicable", or even "exactly zero".
Alternative answer:
Or you could do the sort of thing that lots of computer systems do: Require the user to enter a spouse name regardless of the marital status specified. :-) – Jay Jan 3 '12 at 18:03