How do I type the ⌈ left ceiling symbol?

On Windows, type 2308 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2308. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.

What is the code for ⌈?

Left Ceiling is U+2308, written in HTML as &lceil; and in LaTeX as \lceil. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.

What kind of character is ⌈?

Left Ceiling is filed under Opening punctuation in the Miscellaneous Technical block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. This is an opening bracket. Editors that highlight matching pairs, and bidirectional text algorithms, both key off this category rather than off the glyph.

U+2308 · Opening punctuation

HTML entity

&lceil;

LaTeX

\lceil

Left Ceiling Symbol ⌈

⌈ is left ceiling, U+2308. Unicode also records it as “APL upstile”. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Opening punctuation.

Also known as

APL upstile

Codes & technical data

Unicode	`U+2308`
HTML hex	`⌈`
HTML decimal	`⌈`
CSS	`\2308`
JavaScript	`\u{2308}`
Python	`\U00002308`
Java / C#	`\u2308`
Rust	`\u{2308}`
Swift	`\u{2308}`
PHP	`\u{2308}`
URL encoded	`%E2%8C%88`
UTF-8 bytes	`E2 8C 88`
UTF-16 bytes	`2308`
Base64	`4oyI`
Decimal	`8968`
HTML entity	`&lceil;`
LaTeX	`\lceil`
Category	Opening punctuation (Ps)
Introduced	Unicode 1.1

Will ⌈ survive being pasted?

Normalisation. Yes. ⌈ is unchanged by NFKC, so it survives normalising systems intact.
Legacy encodings. ⌈ is Unicode-only — it has no Latin-1 equivalent, so a system stuck on an 8-bit encoding cannot represent it.
Size. 3 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.

「U+300Cleft corner bracket

Nearby in Miscellaneous Technical

Symbols from engineering, electronics and computing: APL operators, keyboard keys, dentistry and cartography marks. The ⌘ ⌥ ⇧ ⏎ keys people paste into shortcut documentation live here.

All 256 characters in Miscellaneous Technical →

How to type ⌈

Windows	Type `2308` then press `Alt`+`X`
macOS	Press `Ctrl`+`Cmd`+`Space`, then search for “left ceiling”
Linux	Press `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`U`, type `2308`, press `Enter`
HTML	`&lceil;`

About Unicode’s Opening punctuation category

This is an opening bracket. Editors that highlight matching pairs, and bidirectional text algorithms, both key off this category rather than off the glyph.

Frequently asked questions

How do I type the ⌈ left ceiling symbol?: On Windows, type 2308 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2308. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
What is the code for ⌈?: Left Ceiling is U+2308, written in HTML as &lceil; and in LaTeX as \lceil. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
What kind of character is ⌈?: Left Ceiling is filed under Opening punctuation in the Miscellaneous Technical block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. This is an opening bracket. Editors that highlight matching pairs, and bidirectional text algorithms, both key off this category rather than off the glyph.