How to type Logical Or
To type Logical Or (∨), press Alt + 8744 on Windows, holding Alt while typing the digits on the numeric keypad, or write ∨ in HTML. On any system you can copy it from this page, or enter its codepoint U+2228 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 2228 on Linux, or 2228 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Logical Or
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+2228
- Windows
- Alt + 8744 needs regedit
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 8744 | Above 255, so Windows will not accept it as typed. Copy the character instead. |
| Mac | N/A | Press the keys together. |
| HTML | ∨ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+2228 | LOGICAL OR |
Other math symbols
∨ lives in the Mathematical Operators block (U+2200-U+22FF), the core set of mathematical and logical operators. Within Unicode it is classified as Sm, a mathematical symbol. Software may lay it out with the spacing an operator expects.
What Logical Or is used for
In mathematical notation ∨ is a binary operator: it takes one operand on each side, and TeX sets a medium space either side of it so that the three parts read as a single expression rather than as three symbols in a row. That is the classification unicode-math gives it, and it is what decides how the symbol is set: $\vee$ in LaTeX, in maths mode rather than in a sentence.
What ∨ gets confused with
Unicode's own confusables table, the one used to catch lookalike domain names, groups ∨ with v (U+0076, Latin Small Letter V), ν (U+03BD, Nu) and ⅴ (U+2174, Small Roman Numeral Five). They are separate characters that render close enough to be mistaken for one another, so a search or a string comparison will separate them where your eye will not. If Logical Or is not matching where you expect it to, one of these is the usual reason.
What Unicode says about Logical Or
The standard recognises ∨ under another name as well: vee, disjunction. That is a formal alias, not a nickname, which is why it turns up in other people's documentation for the same codepoint.
The code chart points from ∨ to n-ary logical or (U+22C1), down arrowhead (U+2304) and or with dot inside (U+27C7). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Logical Or looks nearly right but not quite.
How Logical Or behaves in software
∨ is East Asian Ambiguous: one column in a Western locale and two in a CJK one. That is why a table that lines up on your machine can break on somebody else's, with no change to the text at all. 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.
Every way to write Logical Or
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+2228 |
| Decimal | 8744 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 88 A8 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 22 28 |
| HTML entity | ∨ |
| HTML numeric | ∨ or ∨ |
| CSS | \2228 |
| JavaScript | \u2228 |
| Python | \u2228 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%88%A8 |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\vee$ |
| SVG | 2228.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ∨ arrives as ∨
Its three UTF-8 bytes E2 88 A8 are being read one at a time as Windows-1252. The text is undamaged; the reader has to be told it is UTF-8.