hyphenation - Usage of hyphens with numeric measurements


What is correct:



  • two 1-Gb links;

  • two 1 Gb links; or

  • two 1Gb links?


I suspect the first, however I do not know the name of this situation, which makes it difficult to for me to find via Google. I have found some examples of typical units of measure (cm, inch, kg, etc.) but nothing for units such as Gb and KB -- I suspect they should follow the same rules, but in practice I rarely see such units hyphenated.


Related




Answer



If you were spelling it out, you would write two one-gigabyte links, using a hyphen to create a compound modifier. However, a hyphen is not correct when using symbols.


With normal facilities available, don't use any sort of space: 1GB. This is the norm.


With non-lining proportional digits, that can put the 1 very close to the G, so where you can, you may prefer to use a thin space: 1 GB for example by employing an HTML entity  .



Two 1GB links (no space, normal use)
Two 1 GB links (thin space, might be preferred)
Two 1 GB links (normal space for comparison)



Different display methods may use a thin space which is more- or less-obviously thin.


Section 5.3.3 of The International System of Units states:



The numerical value always precedes the unit, and a space is always used to separate the unit from the number.



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