Template:,/documentation

Usage

This template produces a comma within CSS class serial-comma, which can be shown or hidden, controlled by a user setting. To display serial commas that are tagged with this CSS class, add the following code to your common.css:

.serial-comma { display: inline; }

If and is placed in parameter 1, an "and" marked with the class serial-and will be added after the comma: {{,|and}} → , and.

Discussion

This template should be used for the serial comma, the comma preceding the [final] conjunction in a list of three or more items.

Some people regard the serial comma as mandatory, and prefer to always see it.

Some people regard the serial comma as superfluous and incorrect in any sentence that is unambiguous without it, and prefer to hide it.

Some people don't care about the serial comma.

This template allows articles to be coded such that their viewing can be acceptable (or made acceptable) to every person (individually), by encoding articles for both preferences.

A normal comma (,) always shows. This template ({{,}}) encodes a comma that will be either shown or hidden, controlled by a user setting.

Editors may enter text as usual, in the serial comma style, with all of the commas. If the no-serial-comma style allows that the final comma may or must be omitted, any editor may replace it with a suppressible comma. (If omitting the final comma would make the sentence ambiguous, it must be left as a normal comma.)

Editors may enter text as usual, in the no-serial-comma style, using no comma before the [final] conjunction, if the sentence is unambiguous without it. Any editor may add a suppressible comma before the [final] conjunction, instead of a normal comma.

Example

This markup: We went to see Jane, Jean{{,}} and John.

• displays in the default browser as: We went to see Jane, Jean and John.
• displays in your browser as: We went to see Jane, Jean, and John.
• displays in a customized browser as: We went to see Jane, Jean, and John.

Someone had to select a default for users who don't customize. It was either a very good choice or a very bad choice. It can be changed.

If this template is used on a lot of pages, users who dislike the default sufficiently will wish to change the default on their browsers. To change this setting, ____ ____ ____. The setting only applies to ____ when ____ ____ ____.

As of January 11, 2016, over 500 but fewer than 1000 pages on English Wiktionary use this template.

See also

• {{;}} – the serial semicolon