Pipe Symbol
The pipe symbol | is U+007C VERTICAL LINE: Alt+124 on Windows and Shift+\ on a US keyboard. Copy it here, find the key for your layout, and tell it apart from the broken bar ¦ (U+00A6) and other look-alikes.
Use the Pipe Symbol
Pipe Symbol
Click the symbol to copy it
Formats
Character
|
Unicode
U+007C
ASCII
124 · 0x7C
HTML entity
|
HTML decimal
|
CSS escape
\007C
URL encoded
%7C
Click any row to copy that exact string.
Keyboard Shortcuts
| System / layout | Shortcut | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Windows (Alt code) | Hold Alt, type 124 on the numeric keypad. | |
| Windows (Alt code, ANSI) | Same result using the 4-digit code. | |
| US keyboard (Windows / Mac) | Shift plus the backslash key above Enter. | |
| UK keyboard (Windows) | The extra ISO key next to the left Shift. AltGr+` on the same layout types the broken bar ¦. | |
| UK keyboard (Mac) | The \ key sits next to Enter on Apple UK keyboards. | |
| German QWERTZ (Windows) | The <>| key to the left of Y. | |
| German (Mac) | ||
| French AZERTY (Windows) | The 6 key doubles as the pipe with AltGr held. | |
| French AZERTY (Mac) | ||
| Spanish (Windows) | ||
| Spanish (Mac) | ||
| Italian (Windows) | The \| key to the left of 1. | |
| Swedish / Finnish (Windows) | The <>| key next to the left Shift. | |
| Linux (GTK, IBus) | Type the hex code, then press Enter or Space. | |
| Microsoft Word | Type 007C then press Alt+X to convert it. |
Try it
Turn a comma-separated list into a regex alternation group and copy the result.
(cat|dog|bird)
Is it a real pipe? Look-alike checker
Paste a command, table or text. Characters that look like | but are not U+007C are listed, and you can replace them with a real pipe or escape every pipe for a Markdown table cell.
Pipe vs broken bar and other vertical lines
Only the first row is the pipe that shells, programming languages and Markdown understand. Click a character to copy it.
| Char | Code point | Unicode name | HTML | Alt code | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U+007C | VERTICAL LINE | | | | | Alt+124 | The real pipe: shells, regex, code, Markdown tables. | |
| U+00A6 | BROKEN BAR | ¦ ¦ | Alt+0166 | Latin-1 symbol drawn with a gap; not a pipe. | |
| U+2016 | DOUBLE VERTICAL LINE | ‖ ‖ | — | Norms ‖x‖ and "parallel to" in maths. | |
| U+2223 | DIVIDES | ∣ ∣ | — | Maths: a ∣ b means a divides b. | |
| U+2502 | BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT VERTICAL | │ │ | Alt+179 | Terminal tree and table borders; Alt+179 is the old OEM code page 437 code. | |
| U+FF5C | FULLWIDTH VERTICAL LINE | ｜ | — | From Chinese/Japanese input methods; breaks shell commands. | |
| U+01C0 | LATIN LETTER DENTAL CLICK | ǀ | — | A letter in Khoisan languages; looks identical in many fonts. | |
| U+23D0 | VERTICAL LINE EXTENSION | ⏐ | — | Used to build tall brackets in maths typesetting. |
What the pipe symbol means in each language
| Context | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Bash, zsh, cmd | ls -l | grep .txt | Send the output of the left command to the input of the right one. |
| Bash, zsh | make || echo failed | Run the right command only if the left one fails (exit status ≠ 0). |
| PowerShell | Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU | Pipe .NET objects, not text, to the next cmdlet. |
| Markdown tables | | a \| b | c | | Column separator; write \| for a literal pipe inside a cell. |
| Regular expressions | cat|dog | Alternation: match either side. Escape as \| to match a literal pipe. |
| SQL (standard, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQLite) | first || ' ' || last | String concatenation. In MySQL || means OR unless PIPES_AS_CONCAT is set. |
| SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server) | flags | 4 | Bitwise OR. |
| C, Java, JavaScript | a | b, a || b | | is bitwise OR; || is logical OR with short-circuit. |
| Python | {1, 2} | {3}, int | None | Bitwise OR, set and dict union (3.9+), type union (3.10+). |
| Mathematics | |x|, P(A|B) | Absolute value, conditional probability, "such that" in set notation. |
Copied!
Summary
The pipe symbol | is U+007C VERTICAL LINE: Alt+124 on Windows and Shift+\ on a US keyboard. Copy it here, find the key for your layout, and tell it apart from the broken bar ¦ (U+00A6) and other look-alikes.
How it works
- Click the large | symbol to copy the plain character to your clipboard.
- Or click any row in the Formats list to copy that exact encoded form (Unicode, HTML entity, URL encoding).
- Switch to the Broken bar tab to copy the legacy ¦ variant instead.
- Find your operating system and keyboard layout in the shortcut table; the pipe key moves around by country.
- Paste text into the look-alike checker to find fullwidth, box-drawing or "divides" bars that break shell commands and Markdown tables, then replace them with a real |.
Use cases
- Chain shell commands together, such as ls | grep or ps aux | less.
- Write a regex alternation like cat|dog|bird to match any of several words.
- Build or fix a Markdown table, escaping a literal pipe inside a cell as \|.
- Type the pipe on a keyboard layout where it is not Shift+backslash, such as German, French or Spanish.
- Find out why a pasted command fails: a fullwidth ｜ or box-drawing │ looks like a pipe but is not one.
- Look up the Alt code for software that blocks copy-paste.
Frequently Asked Questions
Last updated: 2026-10-09 · Reviewed by Nham Vu