Use of [], rather than ()

[Aslan of Narnia]

How, in usage, are [] and () different?

[everton]

In usage of what? Should this be in another forum?

[WillGolfForFood]

Well, in C and C++, square brackets are used in arrays but parentheses are used in function calls.

[nineiron]

The square brackets are useful for inserting explanatory words into a direct quote. For example:

The newspaper stated, "The suspect [Mr. Jones] was arraigned on Tuesday."

[brianmelendez]

Some styles also use the bracket as a second-order parenthesis (that is, a parenthesis within a parenthesis [if you know what I mean]).

[Aslan of Narnia]

Originally posted by everton
In usage of what? Should this be in another forum?

What forum should it be in, then?

I'm talking about correct punctuation usage, such as if you were to use a . to end a sentence, or use a ! to show excitement.

[Exapno Mapcase]

Following up on what nineiron posted, a more general rule would be that you use parens to enclose an insertion you make into your own words and brackets to enclose an insertion into somebody else's words.

From the Chicago Manual of Style (13th edition):

Parentheses, like commas and dashes, may be used to set off amplifying, explanatory, or digressive elements. ex: The final sample that we collected (under extremely difficult circumstances) contained an unexpected impurity.

Brackets are used to enclose editorial interpolations, corrections, explanations, or comments in quoted material. ex: "Despite the damaging evidence that had been brought to light [by Simpson and his supporters], Fernandez contined to believe in his friend's innocence."

There are many more specialized usages of each as well.

[Sunspace]

Square brackets, round brackets, curly brackets, angle brackets... a plethora of brackets!

[vivalostwages]

You can also use brackets [ ] to enclose the Latin word sic when quoting something accurately which just happens to have an error in it. By saying "sic" you are saying that you are quoting exactly, but that the error occurred in the original material and that it is not yours.

[Q.E.D.]

Square brackets are also used in an editorial context to clarify or correct: "...[S]he said that [the perpetrators] were convicted." when the original quote read "she said that they were convicted."

[Mangetout]

I tend to use parentheses for parenthetical remarks (I do this a lot), and square brackets to delimit a [discrete entity that is described by more than one word].

[vivalostwages]

I was just going over format today with students, and the newer textbooks now say that [ ] should be placed around ellipsis. Back in my day, we never used brackets for that purpose.
Any thoughts on this?

[Fernmeldetruppe]

When doing calculations, one often uses brackets to enclose the units (for clarity).

e.g.

3*10^8 [m/s]
---------------------- = f [Hz]
.5 [m]

[Napier]

Brackets around elipsis? Never heard of it[...] Sounds weird[....]

Brackets for editorializing [nobody here is going to know what that means] even if it's your own words, i.e. to set aside notes to yourself that you know you will remove later.

Apple ][ computers used square brackets in the wrong order to make a really cool Roman numeral two.

Lots of computer languages use [] and () and {} and even <> as delimiters, grouping means, to show functions, or to show array indices, or comments, etc etc.

[Mr2001]

You use brackets around an ellipsis when you're editing an original quote: "Congress shall make no law [...] abridging the freedom [...] to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

[Speaker for the Dead]

That just looks odd to me. I'd almost read that as if the author were stating that he was speechless over that line, as opposed to saying that he had removed a portion.

[Enola Straight]

I seem to remember something from high school algebra...

When dealing with sets, [ ] detotes a range of all values, inclusive, while ( ) denotes a range of all values EXclusive

[Shade]

In fact, that's about the only time you can open and close with different brackets. In all other cirumstances you have (..) or [..] but you can write [0,1) to mean all numbers >=0 and <1.

[xvxdarkknightxvx]

What about in math when you have something like:

7[5(x + 2) + (9x^2 +7)]

?

[brianmelendez]

Originally posted by Shade
In fact, that's about the only time you can open and close with different brackets. In all other cirumstances you have (..) or [..] but you can write [0,1) to mean all numbers >=0 and <1.

Originally posted by xvxdarkknightxvx
What about in math when you have something like:

7[5(x + 2) + (9x^2 +7)]

xvxdarkknightxvx, your example still consists of two matched left-and-right pairs of parentheses, nested within a matching left-and-right pair of brackets. I think that Shade was referring to the unusual case where you can correctly use a left bracket or parenthesis without pairing it with a right, or vice versa, or without pairing it with another bracket or parenthesis at all.

[bradwalt]

I don't think square brackets were even invented until the early 1970s, when they started showing up on computer keyboards. Before that, we had to use the plain old parentheses found on typewriters.

Wild Guess: Computer languages were the first applications for the use of these square brackets. The field of mathematics also had specific uses for square brackets, as discussed in this thread, but usually required many other tricky typesetting techniques.

In normal human-language text, we should always follow our style manual (if your boss or company doesn't have a style manual, then play it safe, and use parentheses only). Remember, that a lot of text is still typed on old typewriters, (or typeset on old equipment). Therefore, most style manuals do not automatically assume that square and curly brackets are available.

[vivalostwages]

Originally posted by Speaker for the Dead
That just looks odd to me. I'd almost read that as if the author were stating that he was speechless over that line, as opposed to saying that he had removed a portion.

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You know, it really does look weird now that someone has written it out. I told my students to ignore that part of the textbook and just do the ellipsis without brackets, just as we did "back in the day."

Honestly, I think those folks at the MLA need to leave well enough alone.

[yabob]

Originally posted by bradwalt
I don't think square brackets were even invented until the early 1970s, when they started showing up on computer keyboards. Before that, we had to use the plain old parentheses found on typewriters.

...

You will find them in many textbooks long before then.

As for keyboards - they appeared in the ASCII 1963 specification.

(source - http://www.wps.com/projects/codes/index.html Their mention of one square brace being added in 1967 seems to be in error, as they are present in the 1963 spec, and, IIRC, are part of the COBOL graphics that 1963 intended to support)

When I graduated from high school I was given a portable typewriter. One of its features was that 4 of the keys had removable typefaces that could be replaced with a variety of special character sets obtainable from the manufacturer. I think the "math" set I had may have included square braces.

[This just in ...]

Most books on computer language or books on human metalanguage will start off with a set of definitions on use of () [] {} and other groupings. They vary a lot from one author to another, as a student will quickly find out and complain about.