Latin character S with cedilla
About this character
The character ş is known as Latin character S with cedilla and carries the Unicode code point U+015F, which is 351 in decimal. It belongs to the Latin Extended-A block (U+0100–U+017F), which gathers the accented letters of Central and Northern European languages missing from Latin-1, such as Polish, Czech and Hungarian.
In memory, ş takes 2 bytes in UTF-8 (0xC5 0x9F) and 1 in UTF-16 (0x015F). That difference is why badly configured forms or databases garble this character: they assume one byte per character.
How to type ş
| System | What to do |
|---|---|
| Windows | In Word or WordPad, type 015F and press Alt + X to turn the code into the character. |
| macOS | On a Mac, open the Character Viewer with Ctrl + ⌘ + Space and search for “Latin character S with cedilla”. |
| Linux | On Linux (GTK), type Ctrl + ⇧ + U, 015F then press Enter. |
| HTML / Web | In an HTML page, write ş. Use \015F in CSS, \u015F in JavaScript and \u015F in Python. |
| On this site | The simplest route is the Copy button above: the character goes straight to your clipboard, ready to paste anywhere. |
Keyboards that include ş
This character sits directly on the following ClavierVirtuel layouts, where you can click it with the mouse:
Codes and encodings
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Code point | U+015F |
| Unicode block | Latin Extended-A (U+0100–U+017F) |
| Decimal | 351 |
| Hexadecimal | 0x015F |
| Octal | 0537 |
| Binary | 101011111 |
| UTF-8 bytes | 0xC5 0x9F |
| UTF-16 units | 0x015F |
| Named HTML entity | None |
| Decimal HTML entity | ş |
| Hex HTML entity | ş |
| CSS escape | \015F |
| JavaScript escape | \u015F |
| Python escape | \u015F |
| URL encoding | %C5%9F |
Frequently asked questions
What is the Unicode code for ş?
Its code point is U+015F, which is 351 in decimal and 0537 in octal. In HTML you can write it as ş or ş.
Why does ş show up as a box or a question mark?
An empty box means the font has no glyph for U+015F. The character is still in the text: switching to a font that covers the block (Noto, DejaVu or Segoe UI Symbol) makes it appear.
Can I use ş in a filename, a URL or a password?
In a URL it must be encoded as %C5%9F. Modern filesystems accept it, though it is still risky when moving files between systems. For passwords, some forms reject non-ASCII characters outright.