U005C

U+005C, also called the backslash or reverse solidus, is a Unicode code point that represents the backslash character. It is part of the Basic Latin block and is commonly used as a path separator in Windows and as an escape character in many programming languages.

In Unicode, the code point U+005C is encoded in UTF-8 as the single byte 0x5C, in UTF-16 as 0x005C, and in UTF-32 as 0x0000005C. Its graphical form is a long, diagonal line leaning from the top-right to the bottom-left, typically rendered by fonts as a standard backslash.

As an escape character, the backslash is used in languages such as C, C++, Java, JavaScript, and many data formats like JSON to introduce special sequences (for example, newline as \n, tab as \t) or to represent a literal backslash with \\\\. It also appears in string literals to allow embedding of characters that would otherwise be difficult to type or interpret.

In Windows file systems, the backslash serves as the directory separator in paths, e.g., C:\Program Files\. This usage contrasts with other environments that may use a forward slash as a separator.

In regular expressions, the backslash escapes metacharacters to give them literal meaning or to introduce special constructs (for example, \d matches a digit). It is also used in various programming and scripting contexts to denote line continuations or to indicate control sequences.

Overall, U+005C is a foundational character with broad roles in text encoding, programming syntax, and file system conventions.