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Which one should I use to split a clause like in the example below?

Go to Preferences > Settings – Syntax Specific.

enter image description here

The screenshot above shows Sublime Text menu.

I'm sure they did not use the hyphen. I've gone through the www.thepunctuationguide.com guide but I haven't found this case.

Anyway, apart from what they used, which one is correct?

Other options are listed in the UTF-8 General Punctuation table.

I also noticed StackExchange is using the En Dash in the comments (before the author). Many others, including Bootstrap, are using the Em Dash.

isar
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    A M-dash (em-dash) is used in the image. An en-dash looks almost like a hyphen. – SovereignSun Jul 01 '17 at 14:14
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    I believe the "em dash," as stated in your title, is correct. In Microsoft Word, for instance, typing two hyphens "--" is automatically corrected to an em dash. Here in ELL, it may not work. Let's see: "I went to work -- wait, I forgot my keys this morning." As an editor, I would know that your use of a double hyphen meant an em dash. I agree with @SovereignSun that the en-dash is a typographical hyphen. – Mark Hubbard Jul 01 '17 at 14:18
  • @MarkHubbard I didn't know about two hyphens. It works in LibreOffice as well. Nice tip! – isar Jul 01 '17 at 14:43
  • @SovereignSun I think it depends by the font: Here is the sequence: ‐ – ―. As you can see the hyphen (the first one) looks different from the en-dash (the second). This is how they look with a different font: ‐ – ―. – isar Jul 01 '17 at 14:52
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    @MarkHubbard You can use — to create an em-dash on ELL. (It may not work in comments.) – Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini Jul 01 '17 at 14:57
  • @MarkHubbard The en-dash (–) is not a typographical hyphen (‐). Please read my previous comment: the en-dash looks more like an em-dash (―). – isar Jul 01 '17 at 15:09
  • Thank you for correcting me; I appreciate it! And thank you @user178049 for the tip -- I'm always happy to learn something new! (Neither — nor U-2015 is working for me -- Isar, what am I doing wrong?) – Mark Hubbard Jul 01 '17 at 15:58
  • @MarkHubbard That's the spirit! The entity code doesn't work in comments. You can copy the punctuation directly from an HTML Unicode table since UTF-8 is supported. A link to the table is above in my updated question. – isar Jul 01 '17 at 16:38
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it belongs on http://ux.stackexchange.com. – Ben Kovitz Jul 01 '17 at 18:40
  • @BenKovitz My question has nothing to do with UX. The Sublime Text screenshot is there just to show the contest of the clause. The question is about english punctuation. – isar Jul 01 '17 at 21:41

1 Answers1

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From this source Grammarist.com:

An em dash (—) is longer than an en dash (–) and three times as long as a hyphen (-).

Uses of the em dash:

  1. Em dashes set apart parenthetical phrases or clauses in a sentence. In this use, em dashes are similar to commas and parentheses.

    • Since 2007, the consensus of the economic establishment—bankers, policymakers, CEOs, stock analysts, pundits—has been catastrophically wrong.

  2. An em dash can indicate a sudden break, an interruption, or a trailing off.

    • HOWARD: … She’s totally unapologetic, she’s—
    • CHEW-BOSE: She’s everything.

  3. Em dashes can replace colons or serve as harder versions of commas (similar to semicolons).

    • The all-renewable energy sector is 30 years away — and always will be.
    • It’s that time of year again—time for New Year’s Resolutions!

The en dash is most commonly used to indicate inclusive dates and numbers. (Source)

The most common versions of the dash are the en dash (–) and the longer em dash (—), whose names historically were loosely related with the length of a lower-case n and upper-case M, respectively, in commonly used typefaces.

U+2015 ― Horizontal bar, also known as a quotation dash, is used to introduce quoted text. This is the standard method of printing dialogue in some languages. The em dash is equally suitable if the quotation dash is unavailable or is contrary to the house style being used.

This article may be interesting: Dash

SovereignSun
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