U+2036 · Other punctuation
LaTeX
\backdprime
Reversed Double Prime Symbol ‶
‶ is reversed double prime, U+2036 — \backdprime in LaTeX. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other punctuation.
Codes & technical data
| Unicode | U+2036 | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | ‶ | |
| HTML decimal | ‶ | |
| CSS | \2036 | |
| JavaScript | \u{2036} | |
| Python | \U00002036 | |
| Java / C# | \u2036 | |
| Rust | \u{2036} | |
| Swift | \u{2036} | |
| PHP | \u{2036} | |
| URL encoded | %E2%80%B6 | |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 80 B6 | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 2036 | |
| Base64 | 4oC2 | |
| Decimal | 8246 | |
| LaTeX | \backdprime | |
| Decomposes to | ‵‵ (compat form) | |
| Category | Other punctuation (Po) | |
| Introduced | Unicode 1.1 | |
Will ‶ survive being pasted?
- Normalisation. No. Anything that applies NFKC — search indexes, usernames, domain names, programming identifiers — rewrites ‶ as
‵‵. Safe for display, not for storage. - 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 prime characters
Unicode names 7 characters ending in “prime”. They differ by direction, weight or decoration rather than by meaning.
Nearby in General Punctuation
The typographic marks that word processors quietly substitute for their ASCII lookalikes — real quotation marks, en and em dashes, the ellipsis. It also holds the invisible characters: zero-width spaces, joiners and directional marks that do work without drawing anything.
How to type ‶
| Windows | Type 2036 then press Alt+X |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “reversed double prime” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 2036, 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 ‶ reversed double prime symbol?
- On Windows, type 2036 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2036. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for ‶?
- Reversed Double Prime is U+2036 and in LaTeX as \backdprime. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- Will ‶ survive being pasted anywhere?
- Not always. Reversed Double Prime is a compatibility character: any system that applies Unicode NFKC normalisation — search indexes, usernames, identifiers — replaces it with ‵‵. Use it for display, not where text is normalised.