Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Accessibility/Data tables tutorial: Difference between revisions
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Does the template <nowiki>{{N/A}}</nowiki> conform to the MOS for a table such as this? Should it be used or not?[[User:EnigmaMcmxc|EnigmaMcmxc]] ([[User talk:EnigmaMcmxc|talk]]) 11:55, 8 July 2022 (UTC)
:{{re|EnigmaMcmxc}} I couldn't find any recommended styles for empty cells. Maybe someone else might find something? I found a similar unanswered question here: [[Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Tables#Empty cells]]. If the intention is to indicate that the data wasn't overlooked as a blank cell might suggest, then using either one seems sufficient to me. [[Template:N/a]], which displays an em dash, is used on approximately 47,000 pages, so in a way you could say it is an acceptable option. I don't know the number of "N/A" uses, but [[N/A]] indicates that it is a "common abbreviation in tables". Using one over the other seems more like a preference since to me they both indicate the same thing. Regardless of which one is used, it should match the same usage in other tables found on the same page and follow consensus.
:Just to see what other manuals of style suggest, I searched and found the Chicago Manual of Style suggested using an em dash, ellipsis, n/a, or n.d. with some rules around the latter two abbreviations (see [https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/91315/how-to-represent-no-data-cells-in-html-tables]). Note, the Chicago MoS doesn't dictate Wikipedia's MoS.
:{{tq|Section 3.65: Empty cells. If a column head does not apply to one of the entries in the stub, the cell should either be left blank or, better, filled in by an em dash or three unspaced ellipsis dots. If a distinction is needed between "not applicable" and "no data available," a blank cell may be used for the former and an em dash or ellipsis dots for "no data" ... If this distinction is not clear from the text, a note may be added to the table. (Alternatively, the abbreviations n/a and n.d. may be used, with definitions given in a note.) A zero means literally that the quantity in a cell is zero....}} [[User:Jroberson108|Jroberson108]] ([[User talk:Jroberson108|talk]]) 13:46, 8 July 2022 (UTC)
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