What is the difference between a brace and a bracket

It only takes a minute to sign up. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

I found the terms bracket and brace used interchangeably. Is there a difference, and what is it? Mathematics has several more subtle variations in addition and is formalized more than other fields. This gives you a one-word name for any of those common symbols. And don't get me started on the problems of angle brackets for grouping To provide a non-text counterpoint, "bracketing" in photography is taking multiple exposures around a given value which value—white balance, ISO, aperture, etc.

This shows the use of "bracket" to mean "surrounding," which lines up nicely with the text symbols above. I am not sure about other contexts, but in texts about programming you will often find these terms used as follows:. Someone using the term braces for square brackets is making a mistake, because most people will assume that person means curly brackets.

So, these terms are not interchangeable, although braces are a type of bracket. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? The main uses for braces punctuation in writing are when a writer presents or creates a list of equal choices, a list of music chords, or includes a number set. Use the brace that points left at the start and the brace that points right at the end.

While braces, brackets, and parentheses are often used interchangeably, they are not the same thing. Each type of bracket has a slightly different use that is specific. Square brackets [ ] are especially important in academic writing because they add information to a quotation that does not appear in the original quotation. Since quotations must be presented exactly as they are found, a square bracket allows the writer to interject explanation or clarification within the quotation itself.

Writers may need to change the tense of a verb to fit into the sentence or they may have found an error in the original quote. If writers want to add emphasis to words in the quote using bold or italic letters, this can be done and the explanatory note added in the square bracket. According to recent MLA changes, citations no longer call for URLs in reference pages; so, the use of angled brackets is now optional.

Learn more. What is the difference between curly braces and curly brackets? Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 10 months ago. Active 2 years, 11 months ago. Viewed 4k times. Improve this question. Jasper Zignd Zignd 1 1 silver badge 6 6 bronze badges. Add a comment.

Active Oldest Votes.