英文缩写N/A(not applicable)中间为什么要有斜杠?

Question

我认为一般用到斜线是为了区分对立面,比如y/n表示yes/no,M/F表示male/female,我之前从来没想到过英文缩写能用/来表示,N/A算是我见到的仅有的几个这样的缩写之一(我目前仅想得到这一个),问题是,为什么不直接缩写成NA呢?加了个斜线不是增加不必要的误解吗?

Answer 1

The slash in the context stands for Abbreviations

The slash is often used to separate the letters in a two-letter initialism such as R/C (short for "radio control") or w/o ("without"). Other examples include b/w ("between" or, sometimes, "black and white"), w/e ("whatever", also "weekend" or "week ending"), i/o ("input/output"), r/w ("read/write") and even a one-letter initialism w/ ("with").
In the U.S. government, office names are abbreviated using slashes, starting with the larger office and following with its subdivisions. In the State Department, the Office of Commercial & Business Affairs in the Bureau for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs is referred to as EEB/CBA.

Answer 2

N/A：Not Applicable的意思是：

A commonly used abbreviation in the English language for the lack of data in a form or table field, because it does not apply to the situation.

在填写表格时，可以它表示“本栏目（对我）不适用”，在没有东西可填写，但空格也不允许此项留白的时候，可以写N/A。在计算机中也可以看到N/A，比如遇到除0时，会抛异常，结果就是N/A。

Not Applicable(N/A) 还可以被简写成N.A，n/a，表达的是同一个意思，只是不同的使用习惯而已。在英语国家，也会用n/a或者n.a.来表达，都是同一个意思。

就像有美式和英式英语一样，对同一个单词的读音有不一样，甚至单词的拼写都有细微的差别。所以，对于N/A，不用太认真。