diff --git a/bin/wiki_entity_linking/training_set_creator.py b/bin/wiki_entity_linking/training_set_creator.py
index a0ca4444c..74bdbe9fb 100644
--- a/bin/wiki_entity_linking/training_set_creator.py
+++ b/bin/wiki_entity_linking/training_set_creator.py
@@ -364,11 +364,8 @@ def read_training(nlp, training_dir, dev, limit, kb=None):
                                         sent_length = len(ent.sent)
                                         # custom filtering to avoid too long or too short sentences
                                         if 5 < sent_length < 100:
-                                            ents_by_offset[
-                                                str(ent.start_char)
-                                                + "_"
-                                                + str(ent.end_char)
-                                            ] = ent
+                                            offset = "{}_{}".format(ent.start_char, ent.end_char)
+                                            ents_by_offset[offset] = ent
                                 else:
                                     skip_articles.add(article_id)
                                     current_doc = None
@@ -378,7 +375,8 @@ def read_training(nlp, training_dir, dev, limit, kb=None):
 
                     # repeat checking this condition in case an exception was thrown
                     if current_doc and (current_article_id == article_id):
-                        found_ent = ents_by_offset.get(start + "_" + end, None)
+                        offset = "{}_{}".format(start, end)
+                        found_ent = ents_by_offset.get(offset, None)
                         if found_ent:
                             if found_ent.text != alias:
                                 skip_articles.add(article_id)
diff --git a/examples/pipeline/wikidata_entity_linking.py b/examples/pipeline/wikidata_entity_linking.py
index 32f751cd7..04e5bce6d 100644
--- a/examples/pipeline/wikidata_entity_linking.py
+++ b/examples/pipeline/wikidata_entity_linking.py
@@ -333,7 +333,7 @@ def _measure_acc(data, el_pipe=None, error_analysis=False):
                 # only evaluating on positive examples
                 for gold_kb, value in kb_dict.items():
                     if value:
-                        offset = str(start) + "-" + str(end)
+                        offset = _offset(start, end)
                         correct_entries_per_article[offset] = gold_kb
 
             for ent in doc.ents:
@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ def _measure_acc(data, el_pipe=None, error_analysis=False):
                 pred_entity = ent.kb_id_
                 start = ent.start_char
                 end = ent.end_char
-                offset = str(start) + "-" + str(end)
+                offset = _offset(start, end)
                 gold_entity = correct_entries_per_article.get(offset, None)
                 # the gold annotations are not complete so we can't evaluate missing annotations as 'wrong'
                 if gold_entity is not None:
@@ -392,14 +392,14 @@ def _measure_baselines(data, kb):
                 for gold_kb, value in kb_dict.items():
                     # only evaluating on positive examples
                     if value:
-                        offset = str(start) + "-" + str(end)
+                        offset = _offset(start, end)
                         correct_entries_per_article[offset] = gold_kb
 
             for ent in doc.ents:
                 label = ent.label_
                 start = ent.start_char
                 end = ent.end_char
-                offset = str(start) + "-" + str(end)
+                offset = _offset(start, end)
                 gold_entity = correct_entries_per_article.get(offset, None)
 
                 # the gold annotations are not complete so we can't evaluate missing annotations as 'wrong'
@@ -454,6 +454,10 @@ def _measure_baselines(data, kb):
     )
 
 
+def _offset(start, end):
+    return "{}_{}".format(start, end)
+
+
 def calculate_acc(correct_by_label, incorrect_by_label):
     acc_by_label = dict()
     total_correct = 0