What ⍌ means
It means “release a file” in APL/700. This is a specific file-control operation in that historical APL system.
APL began as Kenneth Iverson’s notation for describing algorithms. In 1962, he presented it in his book A Programming Language; the notation later developed into a programming language.
The surrounding square is the “quad” in APL’s notation. Other APL/700 quad symbols handled reading, writing, appending, and taking parts of files, placing ⍌ in a family of file-control forms.
How do I type the quad down caret?
Use an APL keyboard layout or Unicode input. The key assignment varies by APL layout, so check that layout’s symbol map.
An operating-system character viewer or Unicode input method can enter U234C. In source code, \u234C works where the programming language supports that escape.
Highly technical and historical; its documented file-control use belongs to APL/700.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
2
Related characters
1
Questions people ask
1Why does ⍌ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
More like this
10
How to type or find ⍌
- Also called
- quad down caret · APL quad down caret
- Search it as
- APL · APL symbol · release a file · APL/700 · APL keyboard
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⍌\234C\u234C where the programming language accepts that Unicode escape.Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.