In computing, the backslash is the one to which this symbol corresponds: \. It is considered inverted with respect to the slash /. It is used in operating systems, web and programming languages.
Other names for backslash: reverse slash, reverse slash, contrabar, backslash, backward slash, reverse solidus.
It was introduced on September 18, 1961 by Bob Bemer within the ASCII characters. It was specifically introduced with the ALGOL programming language in mind, where the Boolean operators ∧ (AND) and ∨ (OR) could be composed in ASCII using both slashes: «/\» and «\/» respectively.
Uses of the backslash \
– In MS-DOS and Windows, it is used to separate directories and subdirectories into hierarchies. For example: c:\Windows\System32
– In programming, the backslash is often used to convert a special character into a literal character. This is also called «marking a character» or escape character.
– In Unix, C and other languages, it is used to define special characters. For example, \n represents a line break.
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