Character Baa
About this character
The character ب is known as Character Baa and carries the Unicode code point U+0628, which is 1576 in decimal. It belongs to the Arabic block (U+0600–U+06FF), which gathers the Arabic letters, their contextual forms and the diacritical marks (harakat).
In memory, ب takes 2 bytes in UTF-8 (0xD8 0xA8) and 1 in UTF-16 (0x0628). That difference is why badly configured forms or databases garble this character: they assume one byte per character.
How to type ب
| System | What to do |
|---|---|
| Windows | In Word or WordPad, type 0628 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 “Character Baa”. |
| Linux | On Linux (GTK), type Ctrl + ⇧ + U, 0628 then press Enter. |
| HTML / Web | In an HTML page, write ب. Use \0628 in CSS, \u0628 in JavaScript and \u0628 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 ب
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+0628 |
| Unicode block | Arabic (U+0600–U+06FF) |
| Decimal | 1576 |
| Hexadecimal | 0x0628 |
| Octal | 03050 |
| Binary | 11000101000 |
| UTF-8 bytes | 0xD8 0xA8 |
| UTF-16 units | 0x0628 |
| Named HTML entity | None |
| Decimal HTML entity | ب |
| Hex HTML entity | ب |
| CSS escape | \0628 |
| JavaScript escape | \u0628 |
| Python escape | \u0628 |
| URL encoding | %D8%A8 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the Unicode code for ب?
Its code point is U+0628, which is 1576 in decimal and 03050 in octal. In HTML you can write it as ب or ب.
Why does ب show up as a box or a question mark?
An empty box means the font has no glyph for U+0628. 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 ب in a filename, a URL or a password?
In a URL it must be encoded as %D8%A8. Modern filesystems accept it, though it is still risky when moving files between systems. For passwords, some forms reject non-ASCII characters outright.