Quote:
Originally Posted by Tex2002ans
This reminds me of one of the most dumb "rules" I completely ignore:
"Fully typing out small numbers as words!"
Side Note: I forget what the "rule" is, I haven't looked at it in so long... but if I remember it correctly, it's something like:
"Spell out numbers smaller than ten."
Pure idiocrity is what it is!
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That's a too simplistic rule. Certainly some kinds of numbers should always be digits:
House numbers
Phone numbers
Account / credit card numbers.
Probably measurements & values.
Numbers in some style guides are differentiated.
Identity: Always digits. IBAN, UPC/EAN/ISBN, house numbers, phone numbers. No commas. Mathematically they are not numbers.
Measurements: Always digits. Use of space, comma or period to group threes varies with language. Some only add grouping from 10,000. Cardinal, real, irrational and complex. They can be used mathematically,
Positional or Ranked numbers. Can be spelled or digits depending on context. Second or 2nd.
Dates are a special kind of Ranked number: Dates use digits, British usage 2nd of October. USA dates confuse everyone else if the month is digits. Also called Ordinal numbers. Be consistent, thus if 17th C., all are like that, but if Seventeenth
Century, then all are spelled in full. Decide on your style and be consistent.
Ages: Some guides say always spell, others write that it's context (like 32 years old in 1961). We used to say someone was four and twenty, so the hyphen reflects the original ‘and’ when we say twenty-four.
Fractions: On paper there is no problem with typesetting fractions as digits, but ebook rendering can vary. Sometimes it’s better to spell ‘half’, ‘third’, ‘quarter’ as we do with counts. Be consistent. Perhaps context matters, so half of a loaf or sixth of a pie should be used, never 1/2 a loaf or 1/6th of a pie. The method of superscript, slash, subscript should work for any fraction like 2178/3892. Support for characters like like ½ in quarters, eighths and sixteenths might be limited. Text books should use mathematical symbol systems.
Summary: Some kinds of numbers can clearly always be digits. Other kinds are more difficult as to whether you spell or use digits.