# Unicode apostrophe standardization

**URL:** <https://community.metabrainz.org/t/unicode-apostrophe-standardization/64777>\
**Category:** Style\
**Tags:** unicode, punctuation\
**Created:** [June 3, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/unicode-apostrophe-standardization/64777 "2016-06-03T15:38:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 32

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**Author:** ![Kid\_Devine](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/kid_devine/32/17561_2.png) [@Kid\_Devine](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/Kid_Devine)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2018, 12:53am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/unicode-apostrophe-standardization/64777/32 "2018-01-03T00:53:08Z")

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> [@IvanDobsky](#):
>
> I only need the punctuation cleaned up - mainly because I can’t SEE the difference between one hyphen dash and another, but my computer file system can see it. Leading to confuddlement.

I can see this would be confuddling. Unfortunately the two hyphens used on Musicbrainz (Unicode HYPHEN and HYPHEN-MINUS) are supposed to look identical 🤦‍♂️

> [@Correct hyphen: Unicode HYPHEN or HYPHEN-MINUS](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/correct-hyphen-unicode-hyphen-or-hyphen-minus/19610/3):
>
> ASCII originally used some code points for multiple purposes. The most well-known cases are the `"` and `'` (“typewriter quotation mark” and “typewriter apostrophe”), but - was also used both for the regular hyphen, various dashes and the minus sign.
> 
> Unicode “unsplit” those by making separate “”″ ‘’′code points and a number of dashes, too. It also introduced U+2010 as an unambiguous way to designate a hyphen (whereas a- could be a legacy minus sign or dash). However, unlike the quotation/prime marks, and unlike the dashes, the hyphen and the hyphen-minus look identical, so interest in actually using U+2010 has remained rather low.

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_[View the full topic](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/unicode-apostrophe-standardization/64777)._