How do I type the § section sign symbol?

On Windows, type 00A7 and press Alt+X. You can also hold Alt and type 167 on the numeric keypad. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 00a7. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.

What is the code for §?

Section Sign is U+00A7, written in HTML as § and in LaTeX as \mathsection. In UTF-8 it takes 2 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.

What kind of character is §?

Section Sign 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+00A7 · Other punctuation

HTML entity

LaTeX

\mathsection

Section Sign Symbol §

§ is section sign, U+00A7 — \mathsection in LaTeX. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other punctuation.

What Unicode says about §

used in referencing numbered sections or paragraphs

— annotation from the Unicode Standard, NamesList.txt

Codes & technical data

Unicode	`U+00A7`
HTML hex	`§`
HTML decimal	`§`
CSS	`\00A7`
JavaScript	`\u{00A7}`
Python	`\U000000A7`
Java / C#	`\u00A7`
Rust	`\u{00a7}`
Swift	`\u{00A7}`
PHP	`\u{00A7}`
URL encoded	`%C2%A7`
UTF-8 bytes	`C2 A7`
UTF-16 bytes	`00A7`
Base64	`wqc=`
Decimal	`167`
HTML entity	`§`
LaTeX	`\mathsection`
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.

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 `00A7` then press `Alt`+`X`, or hold `Alt` and type `167` on the numeric keypad
macOS	Press `Ctrl`+`Cmd`+`Space`, then search for “section sign”
Linux	Press `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`U`, type `00a7`, 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 § section sign symbol?: On Windows, type 00A7 and press Alt+X. You can also hold Alt and type 167 on the numeric keypad. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 00a7. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
What is the code for §?: Section Sign is U+00A7, written in HTML as § and in LaTeX as \mathsection. In UTF-8 it takes 2 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
What kind of character is §?: Section Sign 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.