Vertical Line / Pipe
Block: Basic Latin
- Symbol
- |
- Unicode
U+007C- Unicode name
- VERTICAL LINE
- Block
- Basic Latin
- Script
- Common
- Category
- Symbol, Math
- Type
- Unicode symbol
The | character is U+007C, officially VERTICAL LINE in Unicode and commonly called a vertical bar or pipe. It is one ASCII character, but its meaning depends heavily on context: it can act as a separator or operator in computing and can also serve as mathematical notation.
Why | Is Called a Vertical Line, Vertical Bar, or Pipe
The underlying character is U+007C. “Vertical line,” “vertical bar,” and “pipe” are names people use for the same ASCII code point, but those names often hint at different contexts. In prose about text encoding, vertical line or vertical bar describes the character. In command-line and programming contexts, pipe is a common practical name.
The character name does not define one universal operation. Software, programming languages, regular-expression engines, and mathematical notation systems can assign their own syntax to the same code point. Identification therefore has two steps: first confirm that the character really is U+007C, then interpret it according to the system in which it appears.
If this is not the character you meant, use what is the name of |? to identify the mark from pasted text, Unicode, or its visual shape.
A Pipe Character Can Have Different Technical Meanings
In technical text, | is often meaningful syntax rather than decoration. A shell may use a pipe character between commands, while a programming language can use one or two vertical bars as operators, and regular-expression syntax may use the character to separate alternatives. Those are conventions of the surrounding language or tool, not intrinsic Unicode properties.
This is why replacing | with a similar vertical character can break source code even if the screen appearance barely changes. Parsers compare code points and tokens, not visual similarity.
Characters That Look Like | Are Not Necessarily U+007C
Several Unicode characters can resemble a straight vertical stroke. Examples include ¦ BROKEN BAR, ∣ DIVIDES, and ǀ LATIN LETTER DENTAL CLICK. Their shapes can converge in some fonts, but they have different names, code points, and intended uses.
When a vertical-looking character behaves unexpectedly in code, search, or copy-and-paste, checking the Unicode value is more reliable than comparing the glyph by eye. The ordinary ASCII pipe/vertical line is U+007C.
Encoding | in HTML and Source Text
The encoded identity can be represented without relying on the glyph. U+007C = decimal 124 = HTML | / |. A Unicode escape-style representation is u007C. The UTF-8 byte sequence for the current glyph is 7C.
These forms are useful when a font does not display the symbol clearly, when debugging copied text, or when comparing characters that look alike. Numeric references and escapes identify the underlying code point or sequence rather than a particular font drawing.