WordPress Double Dash Problem

The WordPress content management system has a lousy automatic formatting feature that replaces a double dash for a single, larger dash character.

This tutorial will show you how to solve the double dash problem.

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Tutorial - WordPress Double Dash

On the Linux console, you need to find and edit the WordPress formatting.php file.

# vi wp-includes/formatting.php

Locate the following lines in the formatting.php file.

$dynamic[ '/---/' ] = $em_dash;
$dynamic[ '/(?<=^|' . $spaces . ')--(?=$|' . $spaces . ')/' ] = $em_dash;
$dynamic[ '/(?<!xn)--/' ] = $en_dash;
$dynamic[ '/(?<=^|' . $spaces . ')-(?=$|' . $spaces . ')/' ]

Comment the following lines to disable the automatic replacement of double dashes for a longer dash.

To comment, just add // to the beginning of the lines.

//$dynamic[ '/---/' ] = $em_dash;
//$dynamic[ '/(?<=^|' . $spaces . ')--(?=$|' . $spaces . ')/' ] = $em_dash;
//$dynamic[ '/(?<!xn)--/' ] = $en_dash;
//$dynamic[ '/(?<=^|' . $spaces . ')-(?=$|' . $spaces . ')/' ]

Now, you can refresh your page and check if our configuration worked.

If you are not using Linux, I think that you can use the Wordpress Editor option available on the Appearance menu of your Dashboard to edit the formatting.php file.