Translingual

Punctuation mark

[ ]

1. Encloses a number of changes in quoted text.
   1. Paraphrase inserted to clarify context.

      [Luke,] I am your father.

   2. Comments about alterations.

      The message said: "Contact them ASAP, their e-mail is [omitted], that's the chance of your life!"

   3. Orthographical alterations.

      He said, "[d]on't do it!"

   4. See […] for omissions in quoted text.
2. (linguistics) Encloses a phonetic transcription.
3. (computing, programming) Encloses optional parameters in syntax help.

   DROP TABLE tbl_name [, tbl_name] ...

4. (programming) In a number of programming languages, encloses each value of an array.

   t[1] = "one"

   t[2] = "two"

Derived terms

• […] (used when omitting a section in quoted text)

Coordinate terms

• / / (indicates phonemes)
• 〈 〉 (encloses an orthographic representation)

Symbol

[ ]

1. (mathematics) Encloses a mathematical phrase which has increased operator precedence.

   

2. (mathematics) Encloses a polynomial ring.

   

3. (mathematics) Singles out a digit or portion of an equation, for commentary.
   • 1962, Jack Frohlichstein, Mathematical Fun, Games and Puzzles, Courier Corporation, ISBN 9780486207896, page 47:

     

     

4. (regular expressions) Matches a single character that is contained within the brackets, including ranges.

   [abc] matches "a", "b", or "c"

   [a-z] specifies a range which matches any lowercase letter from "a" to "z"

   [^abc] matches any character other than "a", "b", or "c".

   [^a-z] matches any single character that is not a lowercase letter from "a" to "z"

Related terms

• (mathematical precedence) ( ), { }

See also

• Bracket on Wikipedia.Wikipedia