- published: 06 Nov 2014
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The vertical bar (|) is a character with various uses in mathematics, where it can be used to represent absolute value, among others; in computing and programming and in general typography, as a divider not unlike the interpunct. It may be called by various other names including the polon, pipe (by the Unix community, referring to the I/O pipeline construct), Sheffer stroke (by computer or mathematic logicians), verti-bar, vbar, stick, vertical line, vertical slash, or bar, think colon, poley, or divider line.
The vertical bar is used as a mathematical symbol in
, read "the absolute value of x".
, read "the norm of x sub one, x sub two"; though Unicode also provides a special double vertical line symbol U+2016: ‖x‖
.
, read "the set of x such that x is less than two". Often a colon ':' is used instead of a vertical bar.
, read "the cardinality of the set S".
, read "the probability of X given Y".
, read "a divides b", though Unicode also provides special ‘divides’ and ‘does not divide’ symbols (U+2223 and U+2224: ∣, ∤)