Non-breaking space
In word processing and digital typesetting, a non-breaking space,, also called no-break space, non-breakable space, required space, hard space, or fixed space, is a space character that prevents an automatic line break at its position. In some formats, including HTML, it also prevents consecutive whitespace characters from collapsing into a single space.
Non-breaking space characters [|with other widths] also exist.
Uses and variations
Despite having layout and uses similar to those of whitespace, it differs in contextual behavior.Non-breaking behavior
Text-processing software typically assumes that an automatic line break may be inserted anywhere a space character occurs; a non-breaking space prevents this from happening. For example, if the text "100 km" will not quite fit at the end of a line, the software may insert a line break between "100" and "km". An editor who finds this behaviour undesirable may choose to use a non-breaking space between "100" and "km". This guarantees that the text "100 km" will not be broken: if it does not fit at the end of a line, it is moved in its entirety to the next line.Non-collapsing behavior
A second common application of non-breaking spaces is in plain text file formats such as SGML, HTML, TeX and LaTeX, whose rendering engines are programmed to treat sequences of whitespace characters as if they were a single character. Such "collapsing" of whitespace allows the author to neatly arrange the source text using line breaks, indentation and other forms of spacing without affecting the final typeset result.In contrast, non-breaking spaces are not merged with neighboring whitespace characters when displayed, and can therefore be used by an author to simply insert additional visible space in the resulting output without using spans styled with peculiar values of the CSS “white-space” property. Conversely, indiscriminate use, in addition to a normal space, gives extraneous space in the output.
Width variation
Other non-breaking variants, defined in Unicode:- . It was introduced in Unicode 3.0 for Mongolian, to separate a suffix from the word stem without indicating a word boundary. It is also required for big punctuation in French, sometimes inaccurately referred to as "double punctuation", in Russian, and in German between multi-part abbreviations. When used with Mongolian, its width is usually one third of the normal space; in other contexts, its width is about 70% of the normal space but may resemble that of the thin space, at least with some fonts. Also starting from release 34 of Unicode Common Locale Data Repository the NNBSP is used in numbers as thousands group separator for French locale.
- Produces a space equal to the figure characters.
- : encoded in Unicode since version 3.2. The word-joiner does not produce any space, and prohibits a line break at its position.
Example
To show the non-breaking effect of the non-breaking space, the following words have been separated with non-breaking spaces:
Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet Consectetur Adipiscing Elit Sed Do Eiusmod Tempor Incididunt Ut Labore Et Dolore Magna Aliqua Ut Enim Ad Minim Veniam Quis Nostrud Exercitation Ullamco Laboris Nisi Ut Aliquip Ex Ea Commodo Consequat Duis Aute
To show the non-collapsing behavior of the non-breaking space, the following words have been separated with an increasing number of non-breaking spaces:
Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet Consectetur Adipiscing Elit Sed Do Eiusmod Tempor Incididunt Ut Labore Et Dolore Magna Aliqua Ut Enim Ad Minim
In contrast, the following words are separated with ordinary spaces:
Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet Consectetur Adipiscing Elit Sed Do Eiusmod Tempor Incididunt Ut Labore Et Dolore Magna Aliqua Ut Enim Ad Minim Veniam Quis Nostrud Exercitation Ullamco Laboris Nisi Ut Aliquip Ex Ea Commodo Consequat Duis Aute
Encodings
Unicode defines several other non-break space characters. See. Encoding remarks:- Word joiner, encoded in Unicode 3.2 and above as U+2060, and in HTML as or.
- Byte order mark, U+FEFF, which may be interpreted as a "zero width no-break space", a deprecated alternative to word joiner.
Keyboard entry methods
Typically, authors of keyboard drivers and application programs have devised their own keyboard shortcuts for the non-breaking space. For example:
| System/application | Entry method |
| Microsoft Windows | + or + |
| macOS | |
| Linux or Unix using X11 | ,, or |
| AmigaOS | |
| GNU Emacs | |
| Vim | ,, ; or,, |
| Dreamweaver, LibreOffice, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org, AutoCAD | |
| FrameMaker, LyX, OpenOffice.org, WordPerfect | |
| Mac Adobe InDesign |
Apart from this, applications and environments often have methods of entering unicode entities directly via their code point, e.g. via the Alt Numpad input method. in codepage 437 and codepage 850, and code point
160 decimal