Date Ranges
Date ranges can be written with words or with an en dash depending on context and house style. Australian Government guidance prefers worded spans in ordinary prose and reserves en dashes for specified date/year contexts, while dash spacing remains a separate formatting decision.
In running text, a worded range such as “from 2024 to 2026” is often clearest. En dashes are also used for compact date spans under some styles, but spacing and repeated elements depend on the style guide.
Key details
Important caveats
Dash Boundary
When an en dash is used, spacing and repeated date elements depend on the governing style and structure of the range.
Wording Boundary
Australian Government style generally prefers “from … to” or “between … and” for year spans, with defined exceptions for en dashes.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Dates and time — Australian Government Style Manual (opens in a new tab)Australian Government Style Manual · Australian Government guidance for day–month–year dates, ordinal dates, decades, centuries, time zones, and en-dash spacing in date/time spans
- Dashes and hyphens — Microsoft Style Guide (opens in a new tab)Microsoft · En-dash and em-dash functions, including number ranges and sentence breaks