U+21E6 · Other symbol
LaTeX
\leftwhitearrow
Leftwards White Arrow Symbol ⇦
⇦ is leftwards white arrow, U+21E6 — \leftwhitearrow in LaTeX. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other symbol.
Also known as
Unicode 1.0 called this character white left arrow. 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+21E6 | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | ⇦ | |
| HTML decimal | ⇦ | |
| CSS | \21E6 | |
| JavaScript | \u{21E6} | |
| Python | \U000021E6 | |
| Java / C# | \u21E6 | |
| Rust | \u{21e6} | |
| Swift | \u{21E6} | |
| PHP | \u{21E6} | |
| URL encoded | %E2%87%A6 | |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 87 A6 | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 21E6 | |
| Base64 | 4oem | |
| Decimal | 8678 | |
| LaTeX | \leftwhitearrow | |
| 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. ⇦ 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.
Other arrow characters
Unicode names 24 characters ending in “arrow”. They differ by direction, weight or decoration rather than by meaning.
Nearby in Arrows
The core arrow set: every direction, plus doubled, dashed, hooked and looped variants. Anything not here is in one of the four supplemental arrow blocks, which exist because this one filled up.
How to type ⇦
| Windows | Type 21E6 then press Alt+X |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “leftwards white arrow” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 21e6, 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 ⇦ leftwards white arrow symbol?
- On Windows, type 21E6 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 21e6. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for ⇦?
- Leftwards White Arrow is U+21E6 and in LaTeX as \leftwhitearrow. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- What kind of character is ⇦?
- Leftwards White Arrow is filed under Other symbol in the Arrows 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.