We are inconsistently about adding a comma after e.g. and i.e.:
$ cd doc/src/sgml/
$ cat *.sgml */*.sgml | egrep -c '(e\.g\.|i\.e\.),'
255
$ cat *.sgml */*.sgml | egrep -c '(e\.g\.|i\.e\.)[^,:]'
87
I removed the colon because using a trailing colon is always valid in
context.
This summarizes the recommended behavior:
https://jakubmarian.com/comma-after-i-e-and-e-g/
In British English, “i.e.” and “e.g.” are not followed by a comma, so
the first example above would be:
They sell computer components, e.g. motherboards, graphic cards, CPUs.
Virtually all American style guides recommend to follow both “i.e.” and
“e.g.” with a comma (just like if “that is” and “for example” were used
instead), so the very same sentence in American English would become:
So, what do we want to do? Leave it unchanged, or pick one of these
styles?
--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> https://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB https://enterprisedb.com
The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness, Bruce Lee
