NON-BREAKING HYPHEN·U+2011

Character Information

Code Point
U+2011
HEX
2011
Unicode Plane
Basic Multilingual Plane
Category
Dash Punctuation

Character Representations

Click elements to copy
EncodingHexBinary
UTF8
E2 80 91
11100010 10000000 10010001
UTF16 (big Endian)
20 11
00100000 00010001
UTF16 (little Endian)
11 20
00010001 00100000
UTF32 (big Endian)
00 00 20 11
00000000 00000000 00100000 00010001
UTF32 (little Endian)
11 20 00 00
00010001 00100000 00000000 00000000
HTML Entity
‑
URI Encoded
%E2%80%91

Description

The Unicode character U+2011, known as the NON-BREAKING HYPHEN, plays a pivotal role in digital text formatting. Its primary function is to ensure that words separated by this symbol do not break across lines or pages when digital documents are being processed. This can be particularly useful in professional writing, where precise control over line breaks is necessary for maintaining the intended meaning and appearance of text. The NON-BREAKING HYPHEN is different from a standard hyphen as it is used to prevent breaking words at specific points, such as between compound words or proper names. For example, when writing "e-mail" in HTML code, one might use the non-breaking hyphen to ensure that "e" and "mail" don't get split across two lines or pages. While this character is most commonly used in English language texts, its application is not limited to any specific language or cultural context. The importance of line control for maintaining readability and meaning extends across all digital text formats. It's a technical feature that serves the needs of various linguistic structures and writing systems around the world. Despite being less visible to readers, the NON-BREAKING HYPHEN is an important tool in typography, underscoring the significance of invisible details in digital text formatting. It's a crucial character for professionals such as web developers, graphic designers, and editors who want control over the appearance of their text on screen or in print. In conclusion, while often overlooked, the Unicode character U+2011 or NON-BREAKING HYPHEN is a fundamental tool in digital typography. It provides control over word breaks and separations, ensuring clarity and readability across various languages and cultural contexts.

How to type the symbol on Windows

Hold Alt and type 8209 on the numpad. Or use Character Map.

  1. Step 1: Determine the UTF-8 encoding bit layout

    The character has the Unicode code point U+2011. In UTF-8, it is encoded using 3 bytes because its codepoint is in the range of 0x0800 to 0xffff.

    Therefore we know that the UTF-8 encoding will be done over 16 bits within the final 24 bits and that it will have the format: 1110xxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx
    Where the x are the payload bits.

    UTF-8 Encoding bit layout by codepoint range
    Codepoint RangeBytesBit patternPayload length
    U+0000 - U+007F10xxxxxxx7 bits
    U+0080 - U+07FF2110xxxxx 10xxxxxx11 bits
    U+0800 - U+FFFF31110xxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx16 bits
    U+10000 - U+10FFFF411110xxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx21 bits
  2. Step 2: Obtain the payload bits:

    Convert the hexadecimal code point U+2011 to binary: 00100000 00010001. Those are the payload bits.

  3. Step 3: Fill in the bits to match the bit pattern:

    Obtain the final bytes by arranging the paylod bits to match the bit layout:
    11100010 10000000 10010001