U+00A6 · Other symbol
HTML entity
¦
Broken Bar Symbol ¦
¦ is broken bar. Write it in HTML as ¦ or paste the character directly. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other symbol.
Also known as
- broken vertical bar (1.0)
- parted rule (in typography)
Unicode 1.0 called this character broken vertical bar. The standard renamed it later, but documents, fonts and font-editing tools from that era still use the old name.
Codes & technical data
| Unicode | U+00A6 | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | ¦ | |
| HTML decimal | ¦ | |
| CSS | \00A6 | |
| JavaScript | \u{00A6} | |
| Python | \U000000A6 | |
| Java / C# | \u00A6 | |
| Rust | \u{00a6} | |
| Swift | \u{00A6} | |
| PHP | \u{00A6} | |
| URL encoded | %C2%A6 | |
| UTF-8 bytes | C2 A6 | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 00A6 | |
| Base64 | wqY= | |
| Decimal | 166 | |
| HTML entity | ¦ | |
| Category | Other symbol (So) | |
| Introduced | Unicode 1.1 | |
Will ¦ survive being pasted?
- Normalisation. Yes. ¦ is unchanged by NFKC, so it survives normalising systems intact.
- Legacy encodings. ¦ exists in Latin-1 and Windows-1252, so even software that predates Unicode can store it.
- Size. 2 bytes in UTF-8. Character-limited fields — SMS, bios, some form validators — usually count bytes, not characters.
Unicode cross-references
The standard points readers of ¦ at these characters — usually because they look alike, or because one is the correct choice where the other is often used by mistake.
Other bar characters
Unicode names 24 characters ending in “bar”. They differ by direction, weight or decoration rather than by meaning.
Nearby in Latin-1 Supplement
The upper half of ISO 8859-1: the accented letters and the symbols that Western European printing needed but ASCII had no room for. This is where ° ± × ÷ £ ¥ © ® ½ ¼ live, which makes it the most-copied symbol block in Unicode despite being one of the oldest.
How to type ¦
| Windows | Type 00A6 then press Alt+X, or hold Alt and type 166 on the numeric keypad |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “broken bar” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 00a6, press Enter |
| HTML | ¦ |
About Unicode’s Other symbol category
Unicode files this under "other symbol" — the catch-all for pictographs, signs and marks that are neither maths, currency, nor letter-like. It is the largest symbol category in the standard.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I type the ¦ broken bar symbol?
- On Windows, type 00A6 and press Alt+X. You can also hold Alt and type 166 on the numeric keypad. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 00a6. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for ¦?
- Broken Bar is U+00A6, written in HTML as ¦. In UTF-8 it takes 2 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- What kind of character is ¦?
- Broken Bar is filed under Other symbol in the Latin-1 Supplement block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. Unicode files this under "other symbol" — the catch-all for pictographs, signs and marks that are neither maths, currency, nor letter-like. It is the largest symbol category in the standard.