
Parentheses
Make the point in each of your sentences without using parentheses. Don't use parentheses in place of commas, to enclose a complete sentence, or to include unnecessary information or an afterthought.
Don't write a lowercase "s" or "es" in parentheses, "(s)" or "(es)", after a noun to indicate both singular and plural. Choose the best option for your documentation.
You can use parentheses in the following cases:
- To introduce an abbreviation
- To enclose a symbol
- For optional steps in a task
- In SPL commands and functions
Abbreviations
You can use parentheses to introduce an abbreviation.
- Correct
- Use the Splunk Search Processing Language (SPL) to search your data.
- Incorrect
- Use SPL (the Splunk Search Processing Language) to search your data.
Symbols
Use parentheses to enclose a symbol after spelling it out.
- Correct
- Begin the line with a forward slash ( / ).
- Incorrect
- Begin the line with a forward slash, /.
Optional steps in tasks
You can use parentheses when explaining that a step is optional in a task.
- Correct
- (Optional) Provide the context for the task in a new paragraph.
- Incorrect
- Optional: Provide the context for the task in a new paragraph.
- Provide the context for the task in a new paragraph (optional).
SPL commands and functions
You can also use parentheses when writing about one or more fields in statistical commands and charting functions for SPL. See the following example:
- Use with
earliest(x)
andlatest(x)
to calculate the rate of increase.
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This documentation applies to the following versions of Splunk® Style Guide: current
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