I am creating a software training video and need to refer to these brackets:
{ }
I usually call them "squiggly brackets" or "curly brackets".
Is there a more professional name?
asked Aug 8, 2010 at 13:38
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4Related: Bracket vs brace– Roger PateCommented Oct 13, 2010 at 4:22
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13I have read all the answers, but I think that "squiggly" is so much cooler than "curly" that that is what I shall use from now on. I shall blog, write authoritative textbooks and popular novels, and a decade from now it will be the new and undisputed standard.– user597Commented Sep 21, 2011 at 23:32
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What's the point of resurrecting this question?!– user20934Commented Jul 10, 2012 at 0:10
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@rudra - The stackexchange automatically reprints old questions to the front page. There are details about how/why this is done in one of the general FAQ pages.– oosterwalCommented Jul 11, 2012 at 4:59
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4@mickeyf If you like squiggly brackets, then I promise you that you’ll enjoy squirrelly brackets even more, which are kinda like curly brackets but squirrellier.– tchrist ♦Commented Apr 7, 2013 at 20:44
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11 Answers
I think curly brackets is the most professional name. See Wikipedia for more details.
answered Aug 8, 2010 at 13:47
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22@Edward: just so you know, the "most professional name" remains "braces". In case that matter. "Curly bracket" is very uncommon in programming books.– VonCCommented Aug 8, 2010 at 17:29
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12I agree. In British English, "curly brackets" is the most technically correct name. "Braces" may or may not even be understood!– NoldorinCommented Aug 30, 2010 at 13:20
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13I use "curly braces" for my american english programming needs– ClaudiuCommented Oct 13, 2010 at 14:09
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21To add another American perspective: {} are braces, [] are brackets, () are parentheses, <> are less-than and greater-than (or angle brackets, if you must), and «» are chevrons.– skstCommented Oct 19, 2011 at 13:31
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7
curly braces (or 'braces' for short)
This is more common than curly brackets, to design blocks in programming languages.
See Why curly braces? (WebArchive) for more.
Curly braces are one means of denoting a lexical scope. Lexical scopes are blocks of code from which names do not escape
See also:
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10Actually, I refer to them just as 'braces'. 'curly' is more a disambiguation for 'brackets'. And yes nohat, I just realized wordiq is only a copy of the wikipedia entry. Again...– VonCCommented Aug 8, 2010 at 14:11
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5I say curly brace, because where I went through school, brackets ALWAYS meant "()", while we had square braces: "[]", angle braces or less/bigger than: "<>", and curly braces: "{}". That was just the most common usage, some people called "()" either braces or brackets, so the important thing was the qualifier on the type of brace for anything other than "()". Commented Aug 8, 2010 at 23:29
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2I always took "brackets" to mean "{}", "square brackets" to mean "[]", and "parentheses" to mean "()". "Braces" are what I had on my teeth. (Now that I interact with programmers more, I accept "curly braces" and "curly brackets" as a means of disambiguation.)– mmyersCommented Aug 12, 2010 at 22:22
I always thought { was officially a brace.
[ is a bracket
( is a parenthesis
With "bracket" also referring to any one of the three.
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2This is the terminology that I have always used (in Australia). Further to this, I tend to refer to the angle brackets, < >, as chevrons but I have come across some people who do not understand that term.– daveCommented Dec 13, 2010 at 0:38
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3
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1As a fellow Australian, that's the definitions that I was taught; however in a programming or more everyday context it might cause confusion. As has been mentioned in another answer, 'curly bracket' is accepted, if not 'correct'. Commented May 9, 2011 at 23:58
The Chicago Manual of Style refers to them as "braces".
6.102 "Braces, {}, often called curly brackets, provide yet another option for enclosing data and are used in various ways in certain programming languages. They are also used in mathematical and other specialized writing (see, e.g., 12.28). They are not interchangeable with parentheses or brackets. See the example phrases throughout chapter 5 for one possible use of braces." http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/ch06/ch06_sec102.html
12.28 Set notation Braces are used to delimit the elements of a set, and other delimiters should not be substituted. For example, {a1,a2,...an} http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/ch12/ch12_sec028.html
You will find this use of the word "brace" to be supported by dictionary definitions.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brace?show=1&t=1341592270 http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/brace http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/brace
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5This is the one answer I'm upvoting, because it has the virtue of being fairly authoritative (which IMHO is what was meant by "professional name"). However, I can't imagine a context where I'd call them that, as the vast majority of my readers/listeners would be uncertian which glyphs I'm talking about exactly.– T.E.D.Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 16:48
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Thanks for the upvote T.E.D. As a programmer, I call them "squirrelly brackets" because it's fun, and everyone knows what I am talking about. However, yes, I was looking for the "most professional" name for the marks. Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 16:57
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2
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I don't know if this counts as the most professional name, but the Unicode standard refers to them as
LEFT CURLY BRACKET (was previously OPENING CURLY BRACKET)
and
RIGHT CURLY BRACKET (was previously CLOSING CURLY BRACKET)
from C0 Controls and Basic Latin:
LEFT CURLY BRACKET
= opening curly bracket (1.0)
= left brace
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Technically: “[]” are called brackets, “()” are called parentheses and “{}” are called braces. But in the real world these terms are used interchangeably so, to avoid confusion, be sure to make it 100% clear that you mean “{}”.
In my line of work (software development) we call them curly brackets or braces. These seem fairly canonical:
The unicode standard uses "LEFT CURLY BRACKET" to describe this symbol: http://www.decodeunicode.org/u+007B
I've always called them gullwings as this is clearly the coolest name for them. Curly brackets is probably the best if you want people to know what you're talking about.
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The symbols « and », mentioned above, are called guillemets, and function as quotation marks in some languages. See the Wikipedia article on "guillemets" for more information. Commented Jun 8, 2018 at 16:01
If it's a java course then they are braces. See for example http://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/html/CodeConventions.doc6.html
You have a lot of comments about brackets and braces, but I think your question was seeking confirmation of "curly". Will Macmillan dictionary do?
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/curly-brackets
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That link does little for the "more professional name" part of the question, because it labels curly brackets as informal. Commented Jul 13, 2012 at 4:12