Where is the period on the keyboard?
Below is an overview of a computer keyboard with the comma key highlighted in blue.
How to create a period
Creating the period symbol on a U.S. keyboard
On English PC and Mac keyboards, the period is on the same key as the > symbol. Pressing the period key with no other key creates a period.
Creating the period symbol on a smartphone or tablet
What is a period used for on a computer?
Computers use a period in numerous ways. Below is a listing of some of these ways.
- With IBM compatible computers and their operating systems, a period is used to separate the file name from the file extension. For example, with the file "somefile.pdf" the "somefile" file name is separated from the "pdf" file extension.
- In Linux, when listing files in a directory, a single period represents the current directory and a ".." (double period or "dot dot") represents the parent directory.
- Two periods can be used with the cd command in the Windows command line and Linux to move back one directory.
- The period is used to help create a URL and break up important portions of the URL. For example, with https://www.computerhope.com the https is the protocol, and the remainder of the URL is the address accessed using that protocol.
- Used as or part of a wildcard in programming code.