{"schema":"cpc-unicode-answer-v1","question":"How is an em dash different from a hyphen?","answer":"A punctuation dash distinct from the ASCII hyphen. Code points: U+2014. Some constrained formats, code syntaxes and fonts do not expect it. A non-equivalent fallback is \"--\" (ASCII approximation). Two hyphens, not the same character. Exact string match: no. NFC match: no. Appearance and meaning were not tested. Font coverage, shaping, and application acceptance were not tested, so those results are unknown.","unicodeVersion":"18.0.0","purpose":"general","citation":"Do not invent a platform-support claim from this data.","page":"/answers/em-dash-versus-a-hyphen/","markdown":"/answers/em-dash-versus-a-hyphen.md","sample":"—","codepoints":[{"codepoint":"U+2014","name":"EM DASH","displayLabel":"—","warnings":["em-dash"],"explanations":[{"id":"em-dash","title":"Em dash","behavior":"A punctuation dash distinct from the ASCII hyphen.","limitation":"Some constrained formats, code syntaxes and fonts do not expect it.","fix":"Use ASCII punctuation only if the destination requires it.","source":"https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/","alternatives":[{"value":"--","reason":"ASCII approximation","tradeoff":"Two hyphens, not the same character."}],"evidenceTier":"standards-informed-editorial","evidence":{"behavior":"standards-informed","compatibility":"not-tested","repair":"editorial-guidance"}}]}],"comparison":{"schema":"cpc-unicode-compare-v1","exactlyEqual":false,"sameNFC":false,"sameNFKC":false,"sameVisualAppearance":"unknown","sameMeaning":"unknown","left":{"codepoints":["U+2014"],"graphemes":1},"right":{"codepoints":["U+002D"],"graphemes":1},"explanation":"Normalization equivalence does not guarantee the same rendering, semantics or acceptance in an application."},"graphemes":{"status":"available","method":"runtime-intl-segmenter","unicodeDataVersion":"runtime-unknown","count":1,"segments":[{"text":"—","utf16Offset":0,"codepoints":["U+2014"]}]},"normalizationChanged":{"NFC":false,"NFD":false,"NFKC":false,"NFKD":false},"normalizationUnicodeDataVersion":"runtime-unknown","targetCompatibility":{"status":"unknown","evidenceTier":"not-tested","purpose":"general","explanation":"No OS, font, browser, application, field policy or rendering engine was tested. Unicode validity and segmentation do not establish actual display or acceptance."}}