word choice - Name for number format used in "Section 3.2.1"


Does that kind of numbering style have a common name or names? To be fair, it is really more of an "identifier" since it certainly not a scalar (one-dimensional) number. It isn't fair to call it a floating point number either.


If I were to hazard two guesses, I would say:



  • a document identifier (but that seems so vague)

  • a multi-dotted number (silly, yes, but it gets the points across)


So in reality, I've got nothing.



Answer



I think "section number" makes sense.


Interestingly, Wikipedia's page on Section Numbers redirects to ISO 2145:



International standard ISO 2145 defines a typographic convention for the "numbering of divisions and subdivisions in written documents". It applies to any kind of document, including manuscripts, books, journal articles, and standards.



So, this standard defines the number format I'm looking for. Great. (Note that to satisfy this standard, only Arabic numerals can be used; letters and roman numerals are outside this particular definition.)


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