What ⍇ means
The arrow shape alone does not identify the APL operation.
⍇ belongs to APL's set of functional symbols: characters used in programs as operations or parts of expressions. Quad left arrow describes its form, not a particular action. To interpret it in code, check the version of APL the program follows (its dialect) or the program's own definitions.
How did APL develop from notation into a language?
APL began as notation for describing data processing.
By 1957, APL notation was being used to describe data-processing procedures. Kenneth Iverson published the book A Programming Language in 1962. By 1968, IBM's APL/360 was available to IBM customers as an interactive programming environment.
Part of the collection
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
9
How to type or find ⍇
- Also called
- quad left arrow
- Search it as
- APL symbol · APL arrow · ⍇ meaning
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⍇\2347Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.