How to type Dollar Sign
$ is Shift + 4, in the same place on US and UK keyboards. Alt + 36 on the numeric keypad produces it on any Windows layout, which is the way in when the keyboard in front of you has no key for it, and $ writes it in HTML. Its codepoint is U+0024.
Dollar Sign
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+0024
- Windows
- Alt + 36
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 36 | Hold Alt and type the number on the numeric keypad. |
| HTML | $ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+0024 | DOLLAR SIGN |
Symbols related to Dollar Sign
The Unicode code chart points from $ to ¢, ¤ and ₱.
Other currency symbols
$ lives in the Basic Latin block (U+0000-U+007F), the original ASCII set: the letters, digits and punctuation printed on a US keyboard. Within Unicode it is classified as Sc, a currency symbol. Formatting libraries recognise it when rendering money. Its bidirectional class makes it a European number terminator, so it sits beside a number without breaking its direction.
What Dollar Sign is used for
In mathematical notation $ is an ordinary symbol: it carries no special spacing and sits in an expression the way a letter does, standing for a thing rather than doing something to the things around it. That is the classification unicode-math gives it, and it is what decides how the symbol is set: $\mathdollar$ in LaTeX, in maths mode rather than in a sentence.
Unicode publishes a second list of names for $ in CLDR, the keywords its own search data offers rather than the formal name, and they are money, peso and usd. Those words are what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Dollar Sign is not the name they know it by, and the search on the symbol lists matches them as well as the Unicode name.
What Unicode says about Dollar Sign
The standard recognises $ under another name as well: milréis, escudo. That is a formal alias, not a nickname, which is why it turns up in other people's documentation for the same codepoint.
Unicode annotates $ directly. Against U+0024 the code chart carries the note “Used for many peso currencies in Latin America and elsewhere”. It adds: glyph may have one or two vertical bars; other currency symbol characters start at 20A0. That is the standard saying what the character is for, rather than an inference from its name.
The code chart points from $ to Cent Sign, Currency Sign, Philippine Peso and heavy dollar sign (U+1F4B2). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Dollar Sign looks nearly right but not quite.
How Dollar Sign behaves in software
$ takes one column in a terminal. It carries no direction of its own, so in a line that mixes English with Arabic or Hebrew it takes the direction of the text around it rather than forcing one.
What people ask about Dollar Sign
What is the dollar sign?
$ is DOLLAR SIGN, encoded at U+0024. The Unicode code chart annotates it “Used for many peso currencies in Latin America and elsewhere”, which is the standard's own statement of what it is for. It is distinct from cent sign (U+00A2) and currency sign (U+00A4), which the chart lists beside it precisely because they are confused for one another.
What is a dollar sign called?
Unicode calls $ DOLLAR SIGN, at U+0024.
Every way to write Dollar Sign
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+0024 |
| Decimal | 36 |
| UTF-8 bytes | 24 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 00 24 |
| HTML entity | $ |
| HTML numeric | $ or $ |
| CSS | \0024 |
| JavaScript | \u0024 |
| Python | \u0024 |
| URL-encoded | %24 |
| LaTeX, in prose | \$ |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\mathdollar$ |
| SVG | 0024.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If $ needs escaping
$ is one byte in ASCII, in UTF-8 and in every code page in common use, so it never arrives corrupted. Its problem is the opposite one: it means something to the software reading it. In HTML it can be written $, in a URL it is %24, and inside a CSV field, a shell command or a regular expression it has to be quoted or escaped rather than typed plainly. That is also why $ is the character people substitute when the one they wanted will not type.