Left Curly Bracket {

The Left Curly Bracket character ({) is a standard HTML entity defined in the HTML specification. In HTML source code, it can be written using the named entity reference {, the decimal numeric character reference {, or the hexadecimal numeric reference {. The character is assigned Unicode code point U+007B in the Universal Character Set.

The left curly bracket (also called left brace) is used extensively in programming languages to define code blocks, object literals, and scope boundaries. In mathematics, curly braces denote sets. In HTML, the character rarely needs escaping but may conflict with template engines like Mustache, Handlebars, and Angular.

Technical character entities represent brackets, delimiters, and punctuation marks that frequently require escaping in HTML source code and programming contexts. Characters like curly braces, square brackets, pipes, and backslashes often carry special meaning in templating engines, regular expressions, or markup parsers, making their explicit HTML entity encoding important for preventing unintended interpretation by the browser or build tools.

When deciding how to encode the Left Curly Bracket character in your HTML documents, the named entity { is generally the most readable choice for developers reviewing or maintaining source code. The decimal form { and hexadecimal form { are equally valid alternatives that work in contexts where named entities may not be supported, or when generating HTML output programmatically from server-side code. All three representations produce identical visual output in every modern web browser.

Use the left curly bracket entity when displaying code examples in HTML where the literal { character might be interpreted by a template engine. It is essential for code documentation, programming tutorials, and any content showing source code with braces.