Thousands separator
A character placed between groups of digits to make large numbers easier to read: the comma in 1,250,000. Other conventions use a period, a space, or an apostrophe.
It is for display and does not belong in stored data. A number saved with its separators is often read as text, or split into separate fields when the separator is also the file's delimiter.
Where it comes up
- Numbers stored as textA column of quantities contains symbols, separators, or words that stop software reading it as numbers.
See also
- Decimal separatorThe character that divides the whole part of a number from the fraction. It is a period in the United States, as in 3.14, and a comma in much of Europe, as in 3,14.
- LocaleThe set of regional conventions software uses to read and write values: the order of day and month, the decimal and thousands separators, the currency symbol.
- DelimiterThe character that separates values: the comma between fields in a CSV file, or the semicolon between items in a list packed into one cell.