The dash should not be confused with the hyphen. (A hyphen joins, a dash separates.) If you need to use the hyphen symbol as a dash, isolate it with two spaces before and two after it. There are two kinds of dashes, distinguished by their width. The narrower is the en dash, so called because it is the width of the letter n. The wider is the em dash, the width of the letter m.

Here is an en dash – . Here is an em dash — . Choose whichever you prefer, but be consistent throughout the document.

The dash has two main functions. The single dash can be used to separate an afterthought from the main body of a sentence, for example: You remind me of your late father — oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.

Like the colon, the single dash governs everything from itself to the end of the sentence, and therefore a dash and a colon should not be used in the same sentence.

The double dash (one dash followed by another) is used to fence off parenthetical material from the main text: I saw the old man — what was his name? — at the bus stop.

When using the em dash, you are not obliged to put a space on either side. Many publishing houses now prefer to dispense with spaces.

Dashes fall into three categories:

Hyphens (-) are used for all hyphenated words and for word breaks due to layout requirements (e.g. column widths). No spaces are placed before or after the hyphen.
e.g.          This cross-over point moves as the joint opens and closes.
Multiple use of hyphens may be necessary for adjectival constructions,
e.g.          I have been given a two-day-old chick.
 
En dashes (–) are used to replace the words ‘to’ or ‘through’ or ‘onwards’ when mentioning dates or numbers that are consecutive. No spaces are placed before or after the en dash.
e.g.          The years 1930–1945; pp. 56–67; pp. 2–.
But when giving a date range between BC and AD a space is placed on each end of the en dash, e.g. 52 BC – AD 108.
En dashes are also used for names of joint authors of a work, to distinguish the names from a single hyphenated name.
e.g.          The Greenslade–Booker English Grammar Dictionary
                The Robertson–Lowry edition
Very occasionally, an en dash and hyphen(s) may appear together, the context dictating their use:

e.g.          A 1–2-year-old child. 
                [i.e. a child somewhere between one and two years old.]
In Australian styling, an en dash can be used as an alternative to commas to identify a parenthetical statement. In this case, a space is used before and after the en dash.
e.g.           ‘The local editor – when asked why brackets and en dashes should not be interchangeable – answered, “Brackets may be used, if you wish, but en dashes are less disruptive.”’ However, it’s not as common now to use the en dash in this way. It’s gradually being replaced by the em dash, as detailed below.
 
Em dashes (—) can be used as an alternative to commas to identify a parenthetical statement. No space is used before or after the em dash.
e.g.          ‘The local editor—when asked why brackets and em dashes should not be interchangeable—answered, “Brackets may be used, if you wish, but em dashes are less disruptive.”’
Em dashes can be used as an alternative to a colon to indicate a pause, including where that starts a list within a sentence (e.g. ‘There are many animals in the jungle—rhinos, elephants, lions, ...’).
   
Slashes (/) Generally no space either side except in the rare case where ambiguity could occur, e.g. ‘ancient rocks/fossils’ could mean both rocks and fossils are ancient, whereas ‘ancient rocks / fossils’ could mean rocks are ancient but not necessarily the fossils.

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