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I observe a difference in the dashes typesetting when using SIrange in text or math modes. Any idea of why this happens?
Here's the MWE:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\sisetup{
range-phrase= -}
\begin{document}
\SIrange{e-12}{e-10}{\second}
$\SIrange{e-12}{e-10}{\second}$
\end{document}
This is how it looks:
As written in my comment, you can tell LaTeX to behave differently if you are inside or outside the math mode using the TeX command \if<>\else<>\fi; specifically using the conditional form:
\ifmmode<expression inside math>
\else
<expression outside math>
\fi
So if this code is applied to your MWE:
\documentclass{article}
%
\usepackage{siunitx}
\sisetup{range-phrase=%
\ifmmode\mathbin{-}
\else
\thinspace\textendash\thinspace
\fi%
}
%
\begin{document}
%
\centering
\SIrange{e-12}{e-10}{\second}
\[
\SIrange{e-12}{e-10}{\second}
\]
%
\end{document}
The result is:
There is another way of having the correct dash, as egreg suggested, by considering the inclusion of text inside the math mode, replacing \mathbin{-} with:
\sisetup{range-phrase=%
\ifmmode\text{\,\textendash\,}
\else
\thinspace\textendash\thinspace
\fi%
}
%
Obtaining:
\mathbin{-} in math mode (by the way, \mathbin is superfluous); maybe \text{\textendash} is better. If you add \thinspace on one side, it should be also on the other.
\text{\textendash}, as I tried, gives no space between the numbers, so should I add this scenario to my answer (for the sake of completeness)?
\text{\,\textendash\,}, if you want to add a thin space on both sides. The OP's problem is exactly that one gets different typesetting and with your proposed solution the result is different.
The range commands (\numrange and \SIrange) are only intended for use in text mode: this is covered in the documentation. The reason is that it's not possible to ensure in all cases that spaces are correctly dropped at the end of a line if you start off in math mode, so for example
$\SIrange{10}{20}$
would have the wrong spacing with the standard settings if the line break occurs at the to. As such, the code does not attempt to handle the case where it is used in math mode. I guess I can add a warning for this situation.
range-phrase = -- to get an en-dash as always in TeX. Of course, the default is ' to ' as an en-dash looks very much like a minus sign.
$\tau_{32}=\SIrange{e-15}{e-11}{\second}$); without having to explicitely add the spaces (what is the use of LaTeX then).
\numrange behaves weird in math mode (yes, I could have read the doc). As an alternative, what about you making range commands exit math mode, if necessary, and reentering it again? Would that work?
-is interpreted differently in relation to the environment, so to obtain the same you could substitute the-to\textendash, or leave a conditional (more complicated)\sisetup{range-phrase= ~\endash~}to be consistent with the typography rules.sisetup{range-phrase= ~\texendash~}. Feel free to accept the answer if it has solved your issues.(from) <first val> to <second val>in (running) text (or similar construction) and<first val> \cdots <second val>in math-mode so that the endash (or even your actual minus sign) doesn't get confused with a subtraction. Typographically, an en-dash without space around it is correct.