How to type Partial Differential
To type Partial Differential (∂), press Alt + 8706 on Windows, holding Alt while typing the digits on the numeric keypad, or press Option + D on Mac, or write ∂ in HTML. On any system you can copy it from this page, or enter its codepoint U+2202 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 2202 on Linux, or 2202 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Partial Differential
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+2202
- Windows
- Alt + 8706 needs regedit
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 8706 | Above 255, so Windows will not accept it as typed. Copy the character instead. |
| Mac | Option + D | Press the keys together. |
| HTML | ∂ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+2202 | PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL |
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 Partial Differential is used for
In mathematical notation ∂ is a variable: it stands for a quantity rather than acting on one, so an equation treats it the way it treats x, and the spacing around it is the spacing around a letter. That is the classification unicode-math gives it, and it is what decides how the symbol is set: $\partial$ in LaTeX, in maths mode rather than in a sentence.
How Partial Differential 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. It is a mirrored character: in right-to-left text it is drawn reversed, so it keeps pointing at what it pointed at.
Every way to write Partial Differential
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+2202 |
| Decimal | 8706 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 88 82 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 22 02 |
| HTML entity | ∂ |
| HTML numeric | ∂ or ∂ |
| CSS | \2202 |
| JavaScript | \u2202 |
| Python | \u2202 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%88%82 |
| LaTeX, in maths mode | $\partial$ |
| SVG | 2202.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ∂ arrives as ∂
Its three UTF-8 bytes E2 88 82 are being read one at a time as Windows-1252. The text is undamaged; the reader has to be told it is UTF-8.