U+00B2 "²" Superscript Two Unicode Character

U+00B2 "²" Superscript Two is a typographic symbol primarily used in mathematical, scientific, and technical contexts to denote the operation of squaring a number or unit. It is commonly found in expressions such as "5²" to indicate five squared, in area measurements like "m²" for square meters, and in formulas involving exponents or powers. This character belongs to the Latin-1 Supplement block of Unicode and is distinct from the regular digit "2" that might be formatted as superscript using markup or style tags, ensuring consistent rendering across different digital platforms and fonts. Its inclusion in Unicode allows for precise representation in plain text without reliance on formatting codes.

General Properties

Code Point	U+00B2
Version Added	1.1
Name	Superscript Two
Unicode 1.0 Name	Superscript Digit Two
Block	Latin-1 Supplement
General Category	Other Number
Canonical Combining Class	Not Reordered
Bidirectional Class	European Number
Decomposition Type	Super
Decomposition Mapping	"2" U+0032 Digit Two

Encodings

HTML Decimal Encoding	²
HTML Hex Encoding	²
UTF-8 Encoding	0xC2 0xB2
UTF-16 Encoding	0x00B2
UTF-32 Encoding	0x000000B2
C/C++/Java Escape	\u00b2

Unicode Properties

NFC Quick Check	Yes
NFD Quick Check	Yes
Numeric Type	Digital
Numeric Value	2
Line Break	Ambiguous (Alphabetic or Ideographic)
East Asian Width	Ambiguous
Changes When NFKC Casefolded	Yes
NFKC Casefold	"2" U+0032 Digit Two
NFKC Simple Casefold	"2" U+0032 Digit Two
Script	Common
Script Extensions	Common
Indic Syllabic Category	Syllable Modifier
ID Compat Math Continue	Yes
Vertical Orientation	Rotated
Grapheme Base	Yes
Grapheme Cluster Break	Other
Word Break	Other
Sentence Break	Other