U+FFFD "�" Replacement Character Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
�
U+FFFD "�" Replacement Character is a special symbol used in digital text processing to represent an unknown, unrecognizable, or unrepresentable character. It typically appears when a system encounters corrupted data or a Unicode code point that cannot be decoded properly, often due to encoding errors or mismatches between character sets such as ASCII and UTF-8. This character serves as a fallback to prevent data loss or application crashes, signaling to the user or developer that the original glyph could not be displayed, while still maintaining the structural integrity of the text stream. Its distinctive black diamond shape with a white question mark inside makes it a familiar sight in broken or incomplete documents.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+FFFD |
| Version Added | 1.1 |
| Name | Replacement Character |
| Block | Specials |
| General Category | Other Symbol |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Other Neutral |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | � |
| HTML Hex Encoding | � |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xEF 0xBF 0xBD |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0xFFFD |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x0000FFFD |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \ufffd |