What’s a Special Character?
A special character on your keyboard is a symbol that is not considered a number or letter. Examples of special characters include currency symbols, accents, the percentage symbol and punctuation such as a question mark. Similarly, ASCII control characters and formatting characters, like paragraph marks, are also considered special characters. The common factor is that none of these are alphanumeric.
The keys containing these special symbols are often found next to the numeric key section of your keyboard. However, there are hundreds of special symbols, and not all of them have a designated key on your device. Instead, you can type these using an alt keyboard sequence, where you press num lock, and enter a specific sequence of numbers while holding the alt key.
Unlike alphanumeric characters, special characters are extremely versatile and can be used for a number of different purposes in writing, coding, and mathematical operations.
Special characters may also be referred to as special letters, special symbols, or keyboard characters.
In this definition…
History of Special Characters
The history of special characters depends on the type of character in question. For example, early Greek writers began using punctuation marks to separate one thought from another. Eventually, these marks evolved to change the meaning of a sentence depending on the mark and how it’s used.
Other special characters like @ and & are derived from ligatures, or the combination of two or more letters. The ampersand (&), for example, comes from a ligature that joined the letters in et, the Latin word for and.
How to Type Special Characters
How you type special characters depends on which on you’re trying to use. There are hundreds of symbols, with some appearing on your keyboard, and others you can only access by using an alt code.
A typical U.S. QWERTY keyboard features 32 special characters with designated keys. To type them, you can hold the shift key and press the relevant special symbol key simultaneously.
However, if you want to access one of the many special characters that do not appear on your keyboard, you’ll type it in a different way. Instead, you’ll press the num lock to activate the symbols function on your keyboard. Then you’ll hold down the alt key while typing the specific alt code sequence for the character you want.
The special characters list below is in order of appearance from left to right on a standard QWERTY keyboard:
| Character | Description | Use | Keystroke |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~ | Tilde | Accent mark commonly used in Spanish | Shift + ` |
| ` | Grave accent | Accent mark commonly used in French | ` |
| ! | Exclamation point | Indicates the end of an exclamatory sentence or phrase; expresses logical negation in programming languages; notes factorial operation in mathematics | Shift + 1 |
| @ | Ampersat | Connects usernames to domain names in email addresses; expresses rates in accounting and invoicing; precedes usernames/handles on social media platforms and chat rooms | Shift + 2 |
| # | Octothorpe | Number sign; expresses non-executable statement in programming; triggers hashtags on social media | Shift + 3 |
| $ | Dollar sign | Expresses value in currency | Shift + 4 |
| % | Percent sign | Expresses value in percentages | Shift + 5 |
| ^ | Circumflex, caret | Expresses exponents in mathematics; shorthand for CTRL key on PCs | Shift + 6 |
| & | Ampersand | Symbolizes “and” in English text; combines values in spreadsheet formulas | Shift + 7 |
| * | Asterisk | Mathematical multiplication; indicates footnotes | Shift + 8 |
| ( | Open parenthesis | Begins parenthetical text | Shift + 9 |
| ) | Close parenthesis | Ends parenthetical text | Shift + 0 |
| _ | Underscore | Alternative to space key when spaces are not allowed | Shift + – |
| – | Hyphen, dash | Mathematical subtractions; creates en dashes or em dashes in written text | – |
| + | Plus sign | Mathematical additions | Shift + = |
| = | Equal sign | Mathematical equations | = |
| { | Open brace | Opens groups of statements or blocks of code in various programming languages | Shift + [ |
| [ | Open bracket | Begins section of missing details in quoted text; begins string validation in programming languages | [ |
| } | Close brace | Closes groups of statements or blocks of code in various programming languages | Shift + ] |
| ] | Close bracket | Ends section of missing details in quoted text; ends string validation in programming languages; ends mathematical notation for intervals | ] |
| | | Vertical bar, pipe | Delimiter in text files; redirects a command’s output to the input of another in a command line interface (CLI); represents an OR boolean operator (double pipe) | Shift + |
| Backslash | Separates locations in a file or network path | ||
| : | Colon | Separates the protocol from a web address in a URL; identifies a range in a spreadsheet formula; precedes a list of items in written text | Shift + ; |
| ; | Semicolon | Joins two related sentences in written text; finishes an instruction in programming languages; separates long list items in written text | ; |
| Double quotation mark | Indicates a verbatim transcription of something that has been written or spoken; identifies text or data that is not part of a programming command or HTML tag | Shift + ‘ | |
| ‘ | Single quotation mark, apostrophe | Contains commands or literal strings; indicates a quotation within a quotation; expresses a contraction or possessive noun in written context | ‘ |
| < | Open angle bracket, less than | Expresses the relationship between two values in which the one on the right is greater than the one on the left | Shift + , |
| , | Comma | Separates items in a list, joins independent clauses or sentences with a conjunction; separates digits in large numbers; separates values or elements in a computer program | , |
| > | Close angle bracket, greater than symbol | Expresses the relationship between two values in which the one on the left is greater than the one on the right | Shift + . |
| . | Period | Indicates the end of a declarative or imperative sentence; separates a file name from the file extension; separates sections of a URL | . |
| ? | Question mark | Indicates the end of an interrogative sentence | Shift + / |
| / | Forward slash | Mathematical division; separates month, day, and year of a date; signifies non-executable statements in programming languages; closes tags in HTML and XML; delimites expressions; separates locations in a file or network path; writes URLs and network addresses | / |
Special Characters in Passwords
Special characters are often required when creating a strong password. This is because they add complexity to the password and reduce the chances that the user’s account will be hacked.
Many hackers use lists of common or easily guessed phrases and combinations of characters (such as “password” and “1234”) to gain access to a user’s account, so special characters make the password less predictable. However, special characters that are used in predictable ways (like replacing “a” with “@” or “s” with “$”) have lost their effectiveness when it comes to password strength.
Special Character Software
Many operating systems have programs or shortcuts that allow users to type symbols and special characters that aren’t found on a standard QWERTY keyboard. However, these programs may not be compatible with all applications. They also may not have all the special characters or symbols you need, or the keystrokes may be too complex to recall easily.
In these instances, you may benefit from a special character software or character map application. These include:
- PopChar
- BabelMap (windows)
- Rocket (mac)
- WinCompose
- Uosk
- Character Map UWP
- SymbSearch
- WizKey
