Academic documents usually use a space to denote thousands, even if the region (like the US) requires a comma. The shortcut is Ctrl+shift+spacebar.

The US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ widely used IEEE Editorial Style Manual for Authors (p. 20, item 7 under Math) requires a thin space to denote tens or hundreds of thousands (e.g., 62 000, 100 000, but 4000). The shortcut is 2009, alt+x, using the numerical keypad.

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology’s internationally recognised NIST Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI) section 10.5.3 Grouping digits, says:

“Because the comma is widely used as the decimal marker outside the United States, it should not be used to separate digits into groups of three. Instead, digits should be separated into groups of three, counting from the decimal marker towards the left and right, by the use of a thin, fixed space. However, this practice is not usually followed for numbers having only four digits on either side of the decimal marker except when uniformity in a table is desired…
Note: The practice of using a space to group digits is not usually followed in certain specialized applications, such as engineering drawings and financial statements.”

Published on: Nov 25, 2022 at 16:00

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