. | Dot | Used for object property access in many languages, decimal points in numbers, and file type specification in filenames. |
( ) | Parentheses | Groups expressions and controls operation order; encloses parameters in function definitions and arguments in calls. |
[ ] | Square Brackets | Often used for array indexing, specifying lists, or parts of regular expressions. |
{ } | Curly Braces | Used to define a block of code, such as in functions or loops. |
< > | Angle Brackets | Commonly used in HTML tags, generics in languages like Java and C#, and include statements in C++. |
& | Ampersand | In Python, & is bitwise AND for integers; Boolean conjunction uses and. In C, unary & obtains an address. |
* | Asterisk | Indicates multiplication in arithmetic operations, a pointer in C languages, and wildcard characters in various contexts. |
/ | Forward Slash | Used for division in arithmetic operations and as a delimiter in file paths and URLs. |
\ | Backslash | Used as an escape character in strings (e.g., \n for a newline in an ordinary Python string). |
^ | Caret | Represents the 'XOR' operation in bitwise contexts and used as a power operator in some programming environments. |
% | Percent Sign | Used as the modulo operator in arithmetic operations, returning the remainder of a division. |
; | Semicolon | Often used to denote the end of a statement in languages like C, C++, and Java. |
: | Colon | Separates the two result expressions in JavaScript’s condition ? valueIfTrue : valueIfFalse; also used in labels and type annotations. |
? | Question Mark | In JavaScript’s conditional operator, follows the condition and precedes the value chosen when it is true. |
! | Exclamation Mark | Represents logical negation in conditions. |
# | Hash | Used for defining preprocessor directives in C/C++, and commenting in scripts like Python and Ruby. |
$ | Dollar Sign | Commonly used to denote variables in scripting languages like PHP and Perl. |
- | Dash | Used primarily for subtraction in arithmetic operations, also for negating values and in command-line arguments. |
_ | Underscore | Often used in variable names and function names, especially in languages adhering to snake_case conventions. |
` | Backtick | Used to define template literals in JavaScript, allowing embedded expressions and multi-line strings. |
" and ' | Quotation Marks | Used to denote string literals; the use of single or double quotes can vary by language and context. |
@ | At Sign | Used for decorators in Python, to denote email addresses in strings, and for annotations in languages like Java. |