# What is the ISO code for an ellipsis with FOUR dots? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 15, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-iso-code-for-an-ellipsis-with-four-dots/536246 "2010-04-15T19:44:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-iso-code-for-an-ellipsis-with-four-dots/536246/1 "2010-04-15T19:44:59Z")
I’m using a small script to transform word documents into valid XHTML. This works fine for most things, catching curly quotes, en dashes, and so on… but there’s one character I can’t figure out how to handle. I know that the ellipsis with three dots is 8230, so I can do something like this: ```auto 'ellipsis with three dots call cleanTags(ChrW(8230), "...") 'but what do I do when there are four? 'call cleanTags(ChrW(???), "....") ``` So, even if there’s no ISO for that, does anybody know what code word uses? I’d take this to a VBA forum, but this really isn’t a question about VBA… ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-iso-code-for-an-ellipsis-with-four-dots/536246/2 "2010-04-15T19:51:00Z")
To the best of my knowledge, an ellipsis is three dots. What people think is a four dot version is an ellipsis at the end of a sentence followed by a period. ---
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-iso-code-for-an-ellipsis-with-four-dots/536246/3 "2010-04-15T19:54:03Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > To the best of my knowledge, an ellipsis is three dots. What people think is a four dot version is an ellipsis at the end of a sentence followed by a period. I agree. However, Bill Gates (as he so often does) has a different idea… there is a four-dot “ellipsis” character. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-iso-code-for-an-ellipsis-with-four-dots/536246/4 "2010-04-15T21:46:14Z")
> [@Engywook](#): > > I agree. However, Bill Gates (as he so often does) has a different idea… there is a four-dot “ellipsis” character. That’s weird. Any time I make a 4-dot ellipsis in Word 2000, I get …. (ellipsis period). Can you copy and paste a line in here that uses the four-dot ellipsis character? You should at least be able to copy and paste it into Excel, and then use the CODE() function to figure it out. Put the odd character in cell A1, and then in another cell type =CODE(A1) and press enter. That cell should now contain the code you are looking for. If it contains 8230, then you’ve actually got two characters, and you’ll have to adjust your code appropriately. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-iso-code-for-an-ellipsis-with-four-dots/536246/5 "2010-04-15T22:01:50Z")
[The Unicode Character ‘MONGOLIAN ELLIPSIS’ (U+1801)](http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1801/index.htm) has four dots. [And I would bet a silk pyjama There isn’t any three-L lllama](http://www.ogdennash.org/ogden_nash_biography.htm) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-iso-code-for-an-ellipsis-with-four-dots/536246/6 "2010-04-15T22:17:37Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > [The Unicode Character ‘MONGOLIAN ELLIPSIS’ (U+1801)](http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1801/index.htm) has four dots. > > [And I would bet a silk pyjama > There isn’t any three-L lllama](http://www.ogdennash.org/ogden_nash_biography.htm) According to Wikipedia, it seems the [Mongolian ellipsis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis) is vertical, though. This [Unicode chart](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&ved=0CAkQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Funicode.org%2Fcharts%2FPDF%2FU1800.pdf&rct=j&q=unicode+1801&ei=SZDHS62JNaaaMr7b8IYJ&usg=AFQjCNEmpQvZ1dXQvZ6H3Hg6acTEk8VvKg) (warning: PDF) seems to agree. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-iso-code-for-an-ellipsis-with-four-dots/536246/7 "2010-04-15T22:57:02Z")
There is a combining char (i.e. one intended to be used with another: [COMBINING FOUR DOTS ABOVE](http://unicode-search.net/unicode-namesearch.pl?term=U%2B20DC) = ⃜ ---
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-iso-code-for-an-ellipsis-with-four-dots/536246/8 "2010-04-16T13:34:59Z")
Thanks, all. I’ll try the Excel code(a1) thing next time I see such an animal. I’ve yanked them out manually and can’t seem to get another one, but I’m sue it’ll come up again.