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If the individual items of a list are long, complex, affixed with description, or themselves contain commas, semicolons may be preferred as separators, and the list may be introduced with a colon. In news headlines, a comma might replace the word "and", even if there are only two items, in order to save space, as in this headline from Reuters: [11]
The semicolon; (or semi-colon [1]) is a symbol commonly used as orthographic punctuation. In the English language , a semicolon is most commonly used to link (in a single sentence) two independent clauses that are closely related in thought, such as when restating the preceding idea with a different expression.
Hebrew punctuation – Punctuation conventions of the Hebrew language over time; Glossary of mathematical symbols; Japanese punctuation; Korean punctuation; Ordinal indicator – Character(s) following an ordinal number (used of the style 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or as superscript, 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd, 4 th or (though not in English) 1º, 2º, 3º, 4º).
Items may be given with initial lowercase or in sentence case. No final punctuation is used in most cases. Semicolons may be used when the list is short, items are lowercase, and the entire list forms a complete sentence (typically with its introductory phrase and possibly with a closing phrase after the list to complete the sentence).
Many programming languages provide support for list data types, and have special syntax and semantics for lists and list operations. A list can often be constructed by writing the items in sequence, separated by commas, semicolons, and/or spaces, within a pair of delimiters such as parentheses '()', brackets '[]', braces '{}', or angle brackets
A leading semicolon;, in column 1 of a line, causes the line to be displayed as the name part of a description list. These lists contain a name, followed by one or more descriptions that apply to it (e.g. in a glossary). These descriptions are indicated by starting them with :.
The comma-free approach is often used with partial quotations: The report observed "a 45% reduction in transmission rate". A comma is required when it would be present in the same construction if none of the material were a quotation: In Margaret Mead's view, "we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities" to enrich our culture.
Punctuation in the English language helps the reader to understand a sentence through visual means other than just the letters of the alphabet. [1] English punctuation has two complementary aspects: phonological punctuation, linked to how the sentence can be read aloud, particularly to pausing; [2] and grammatical punctuation, linked to the structure of the sentence. [3]