dashcase

Dashcase, also known as dash-case or hyphen-case, is a naming convention in which a phrase is written in lowercase and words are separated by hyphens. This style is commonly used for web addresses, slugs, and identifiers in contexts that permit hyphens.

Common uses include URLs and slugs, file names, and CSS class names. In most programming languages, hyphens are not allowed in identifiers, so dashcase is typically not used for variables or functions; instead it appears in data attributes, configuration keys, resource names, and in content management workflows.

Notation and conversion: break the phrase into words, convert to lowercase, and join with hyphens. Examples: Dash Case becomes dash-case; user profile becomes user-profile. Depending on context, numbers may be preserved (version-2-1) and punctuation typically removed or transliterated.

Relation to other conventions: dashcase is closely related to kebab-case; many communities treat dash-case and kebab-case as interchangeable. It differs from snake_case (underscores) and from CamelCase/PascalCase (no separators).

Advantages and limitations: hyphens enhance readability and are preferred in URLs for search engine optimization. They are widely supported in file naming, URLs, and HTML identifiers. Limitations include limited applicability in programming languages for identifiers and potential ambiguity with the minus operator in code; tooling may require escaping or alternative naming.