Wikipedia:Non-breaking hyphen

Unlike the ASCII hyphen-minus character "-", the non-breaking hyphen character is typically rejected if used as a negative sign or minus sign in calculations:

::* Using hyphen for minus: {{#expr: 34 - 56}} → {{#expr: 34 - 56}}

::* Using non-breaking hyphen: {{#expr: 34 ‑ 56}} → {{#expr: 34 ‑ 56}}

::* Using − for minus: {{#expr: 34 − 56}} → {{#expr: 34 − 56}}

Similarly, PC pop-up calculators might typically reject the non-breaking hyphen as a character to be ignored, rather than as a form of minus sign.

When using a non-breaking hyphen, care must be taken to ensure whether other editors would understand the unusual nb-hyphen when used in typical text. Confusion can be eliminated by using the HTML character entity ‑ or the template {{tl|nbh}} to insert a non-breaking hyphen.

Whether inserted directly or through use of the template {{tlx|nbh}}, the rendered character, although visually identical, or nearly so (compare:‑-), will not match any search using a standard ASCII hyphen-minus “-”. This is unlike the non-breaking space  , whose rendering on the page is indistinguishable from a regular space. This can be fixed by using a regular hyphen and making it and its bordering words non-breaking with the {{tlx|nowrap}} template (shortcut {{tlx|nobr}}), for example, {{tlx|nowrap|I-94}}. Unfortunately, making only the hyphen nonwrapping has no effect, which precludes redefining the template {{tlx|nbh}} as {{tlx|nowrap|-}}. It will work if a hyphen is followed by {{unichar|2060|WORD JOINER}}, but this character fails to render as zero width as it is supposed to when using the Wikipedia app (only tested on Android) (example: xxx-⁠xxx). This can be fixed by enclosing it in ⁠ (example: xxx-⁠xxx). Another solution is to follow a hyphen with {{unichar|FEFF|BYTE ORDER MARK}} in its deprecated (since Unicode 3.2) use as {{sc2|{{uc:Zero-width no-break space}}}}. Also usable following a hyphen are   and x. All of these satisfy the following three criteria:

• They prevent post-hyphen breaks.
• Nothing shows on the page.
• They are “invisible” to searches.

However, none of these can be used inside wikilinks interchangeably with a standard hyphen. While   links to a standard space, e.g., J.R.R. Tolkien links to J.R.R. Tolkien, both {{unichar|2060}} and {{unichar|FEFF}} are not invisible, I-⁠94 and I-94, while anything with {{tag|span}} in it is not recognized as a wikilink, e.g., I-94. Thus {{tlx|nobr}} must be used outside a non-piped link: {{nobr|I-94}} → {{nobr|I-94}}. If only part of the link text is to be made non-wrapping then a piped link must be used: I-94 → I-94.

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Non-breaking Hyphen