How do I type the · middle dot symbol?

On Windows, type 00B7 and press Alt+X. You can also hold Alt and type 183 on the numeric keypad. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 00b7. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.

What is the code for ·?

Middle Dot is U+00B7, written in HTML as · and in LaTeX as \cdotp. In UTF-8 it takes 2 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.

What kind of character is ·?

Middle Dot is filed under Other punctuation in the Latin-1 Supplement block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. Unicode files this under "other punctuation", the category for marks that are not brackets, dashes or quotes.

U+00B7 · Other punctuation

HTML entity

LaTeX

\cdotp

Middle Dot Symbol ·

· is middle dot, U+00B7. Unicode also records it as “midpoint (in typography)”. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other punctuation.

Also known as

midpoint (in typography)
Georgian comma
Greek middle dot (ano teleia)

What Unicode says about ·

also used as a raised decimal point or to denote multiplication; for multiplication 22C5 is preferred

used as a vowel length mark (part of words) in many Amerindian orthographies

— annotation from the Unicode Standard, NamesList.txt

Codes & technical data

Unicode	`U+00B7`
HTML hex	`·`
HTML decimal	`·`
CSS	`\00B7`
JavaScript	`\u{00B7}`
Python	`\U000000B7`
Java / C#	`\u00B7`
Rust	`\u{00b7}`
Swift	`\u{00B7}`
PHP	`\u{00B7}`
URL encoded	`%C2%B7`
UTF-8 bytes	`C2 B7`
UTF-16 bytes	`00B7`
Base64	`wrc=`
Decimal	`183`
HTML entity	`·`
LaTeX	`\cdotp`
Category	Other punctuation (Po)
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 dot characters

Unicode names 24 characters ending in “dot”. 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.

All 29 characters in Latin-1 Supplement →

How to type ·

Windows	Type `00B7` then press `Alt`+`X`, or hold `Alt` and type `183` on the numeric keypad
macOS	Press `Ctrl`+`Cmd`+`Space`, then search for “middle dot”
Linux	Press `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`U`, type `00b7`, press `Enter`
HTML	`·`

About Unicode’s Other punctuation category

Unicode files this under "other punctuation", the category for marks that are not brackets, dashes or quotes.

Frequently asked questions

How do I type the · middle dot symbol?: On Windows, type 00B7 and press Alt+X. You can also hold Alt and type 183 on the numeric keypad. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 00b7. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
What is the code for ·?: Middle Dot is U+00B7, written in HTML as · and in LaTeX as \cdotp. In UTF-8 it takes 2 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
What kind of character is ·?: Middle Dot is filed under Other punctuation in the Latin-1 Supplement block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. Unicode files this under "other punctuation", the category for marks that are not brackets, dashes or quotes.