U2212

U+2212 MINUS SIGN is a Unicode character used to represent subtraction and negative values in mathematical notation and related fields. It is distinct from the ASCII hyphen-minus (U+002D), as well as from other dash characters such as the en dash (U+2013) and em dash (U+2014). The minus sign is typically the preferred symbol for subtraction in formal mathematics and scientific typography because it visually denotes the operation rather than a hyphenation or punctuation mark.

Encoding and representation

In Unicode, the character is named MINUS SIGN and is assigned the code point U+2212. In UTF-8 it is encoded as the three-byte sequence E2 88 92. In UTF-16 it is 0x2212, and in UTF-32 it is 0x00002212. This character is widely supported across fonts and rendering engines, though its appearance can vary slightly between typefaces.

Usage and distinctions

U+2212 is used to indicate subtraction (for example, 5 − 3 = 2) and to denote negative numbers. In many programming languages, the minus operator is represented by the hyphen-minus U+002D due to historical and compatibility reasons, which means that U+2212 may not be accepted as an operator in source code. In typographic contexts, using U+2212 improves mathematical accuracy and spacing compared with U+002D. It is important not to substitute the MINUS SIGN with a dash or hyphen when precise mathematical notation is required.

See also

Hyphen (U+002D), En dash (U+2013), Em dash (U+2014), and other related punctuation and mathematical symbols.