DIN 55301

	DIN 55301
Area	Tables
title	Design of statistical tables
Brief description:	This standard applies to statistical tables as well as for combinations of numbers, which were collected by mathematical methods (z. B. logarithms )
Latest edition	September 1978
ISO

Quote from the norm

The DIN standard DIN 55301 regulates the design of statistical tables in Germany . The current version was published in September 1978 and (as of the beginning of 2016) has not been revised since then.

Section 10.6 of the standard specifies that a table should not contain any empty compartments. Where no values ​​can or should not be entered, so-called value replacement characters are used:

character	Keyboard replacement	meaning
0	on keyboard	less than half of 1 in the last vacancy, but more than nothing
-	-	nothing available (exactly zero)
...	...	Details will be given later
/	on keyboard	Numerical value not sure enough
・	.	Numerical value unknown or to be kept secret
✕	X	Table compartment locked because statement does not make sense

Since four of these six characters cannot be found on conventional typewriters and PC keyboards , optically similar characters are often used instead, but these are not regulated in this way in DIN 55301. The standard does not contain any reference to DIN 5008 (which at the time was entitled “Rules for Typing”) and is therefore not primarily aimed at users of office machines , but rather at the creators of printed matter. (Modern keyboard layouts such as the German T2 keyboard contain the characters listed above except for the large cross ✕, Unicode U + 2715 multiplication x .)

In an explanation at the end of the publication of the standard, there is a note that the standard was developed together with the “Publications” working group of the state statistical offices .

Some of the above-documented replacing characters were used internationally as early as 1949:
EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS USED

• ・ Category not applicable
• … Data not available
• - Magnitude nil (or negligible)
• 0 magnitude less than half of unit employed

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Norm 55301: 1978-09 - Design of statistical tables. Beuth Verlag , accessed on January 23, 2017 . 
2. ↑ z. B. Road traffic accidents in December 2013 (PDF) destatis.de. S. 2. Archived from the original on February 17, 2016. Retrieved on May 13, 2016.
3. ↑ United Nations: Demographic Yearbook 1948, New York 1949 , p. 9