U+005B "[" Left Square Bracket Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
[
U+005B "[" Left Square Bracket is a fundamental punctuation mark used in computing and written text to denote the beginning of a grouping or enclosure. It is a key element in programming languages, where it defines array indices, list components, or function arguments, and in mathematics for indicating intervals or matrix notation. In typography, it serves as the opening counterpart to the right square bracket "]," forming a symmetric pair for containing auxiliary information or markup in plain text, encoding, and data formats like JSON or XML. Its consistent codepoint in the ASCII standard ensures broad interoperability across digital systems and platforms.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+005B |
| Version Added | 1.1 |
| Name | Left Square Bracket |
| Unicode 1.0 Name | Opening Square Bracket |
| Block | Basic Latin |
| General Category | Open Punctuation |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Other Neutral |
| Mirrored | Yes |
| Mirrored Character | "]" U+005D Right Square Bracket |
| Bidirectional Paired Bracket Type | Open |
| Bidirectional Paired Bracket | "]" U+005D Right Square Bracket |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | [ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | [ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0x5B |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x005B |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x0000005B |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u005b |