\
Backslash
- Unicode
- U+005C
- Category
- Punctuation
- HTML Entity
- \
- CSS
- \005C
The backslash (\) is the forward slash leaning the other way. Bob Bemer put it into an IBM character set in 1961 so that ALGOL programmers could write the logical operators /\ and \/; ASCII adopted it in 1963, and it stayed on keyboards as the computer's own punctuation mark: it has no role in ordinary writing. Most people meet it in Windows file paths (C:\Users\Documents), where Microsoft chose it because the forward slash was already taken for command-line options.
On a US keyboard the backslash key sits above Enter; on UK keyboards it is left of Z. On an iPhone it is on the #+= page, on Android on the =\< page. Do not confuse it with the slash (/), which is used in web addresses and dates.
On a US keyboard the backslash key sits above Enter; on UK keyboards it is left of Z. On an iPhone it is on the #+= page, on Android on the =\< page. Do not confuse it with the slash (/), which is used in web addresses and dates.
How to Type
- Windows
- \ key above Enter (US) · Alt+92
- macOS
- \ key above Return (US)
- Linux
- \ key · Ctrl+Shift+U 5c
- HTML
- \
In Programming
The backslash is the escape character almost everywhere: \n and \t in strings, \d and \. in regular expressions, \" inside JSON. It separates folders in Windows paths, continues a long line in Bash, Python and C macros, starts every command in LaTeX (\frac), and separates namespaces in PHP (App\Models). Because it escapes itself, a literal backslash is often written as \\.
Tags
backslash
back slash
reverse solidus
backslash vs slash
alt 92
windows path
escape character
keyboard symbol
ascii