What ␛ means
It marks where ESC occurs without acting as ESC.
The 1968 ASCII standard, a 7-bit code for exchanging text, included ESC among its control characters. ESC provided code extension: it came before a short run of characters whose interpretation changed.
␛ is a control picture, a printable graphic for a nonprinting code. Unicode leaves its drawing unspecified, so systems can show different pictures for ESC.
Why does ESC appear before terminal commands?
ESC changes how a terminal reads what follows.
In 7-bit terminal notation, ESC [ starts a Control Sequence Introducer (CSI), which begins a terminal control sequence. ESC \ is a String Terminator (ST), the ending for a control string.
When ␛ appears in a data display, it marks the ESC character; the surrounding notation tells you which control sequence follows.
Technical and literal: a visible notation for a control character in explanations and data displays.
␛ is not the control code a terminal needs; ESC is.
Part of collections
Don't confuse it with
3
[ ^[ versus ␛: ^[ is a two-character caret notation for ESC; ␛ is its single Unicode control picture.
\x1b Code writes ESC as an escape like \x1b or \033; ␛ is its single visible Unicode picture.
Combination ideas
7Questions people ask
1Does ␛ run a terminal command when pasted?
No. ␛ is a printable Unicode character; a terminal command needs the ESC control character and the following protocol notation.
More like this
13
Collections with ␛
2
How to type or find ␛
- Search it as
- escape symbol · ESC character · ASCII ESC · control picture · escape sequence · terminal ESC · Ctrl-[ · ^[
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
␛\241BCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.