Kommatecken

Kommatecken is the Swedish term for the punctuation mark known in English as the comma. The symbol , is used to indicate a short pause, to separate items in a list, and to set off nonessential information within a sentence. In many European languages, including Swedish, the comma also functions as a decimal separator in numbers (for example, 3,14), although thousands separators and other number formats vary by locale. The comma does not normally serve as a thousands separator in Swedish typography; spaces or periods are used instead.

In typography, the standard rule is that there is no space before a comma, and a single space typically follows it. The comma can also introduce or set apart introductory phrases, direct address, and certain nonrestrictive clauses, depending on style and language conventions. The use of a serial (Oxford) comma before the final item in a list varies by language and style guide.

Beyond prose, kommatecken are widely used in computing and data formats to delimit elements: for example, separating function arguments, items in lists or records, and serving as the field delimiter in CSV files. In programming languages, the comma can separate expressions or arguments and may participate in language-specific constructs such as the comma operator.

Historically, the comma emerged in early modern typography to indicate a shorter pause than the period. It was gradually adopted across languages from the 15th to 18th centuries, with regional variations in usage and punctuation norms that continue to influence modern practice.