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# Symbol Counter

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Characters
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Words
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## Count Symbols in Text with our Free Tool!

To get started, simply start typing in the text box above. Or if you prefer, you can paste your text in the text box.

Once there is text in the text box, the count of symbols in your text will display above the text box and to the left.

As an added bonus, we included the word count and character count above the text box and to the right.

All of these counts will update in real-time as you type!

You can also copy everything in the text box by clicking the green Copy Text button. You can then paste it into whatever document you are using.

## What symbols are counted?

Our symbol counter will count all alphanumeric characters. In other words, anything that is not a lowercase letter, uppercase letter, number or a space will be counted as a symbol.

Please note that punctuation including periods, commas, exclamation points, question marks, both single and double quotation marks will be counted as a symbol.

Non-English letters will be counted as symbols.

A few examples of characters that will be counted as symbols are !, @, #, $, € and ¢ although there are hundreds more.

## One emoji counts as two symbols

At first it might seem odd that we count one emoji as two symbols. For example, a smiley face emoji 😃 will count as two symbols and two characters even though most people think of it as "one" character. This has to do with the fact that an emoji takes up more bytes in memory.

In fact, many popular websites like Reddit, Twitter, Instagram also all count an emoji as 2 characters. So we wanted to follow that same industry standard and also count an emoji as 2 symbols/characters. If you want emojis to only count as one you can use our emoji counter.

## How are symbols represented in computer code?

Symbols, like all characters are represented by a specified number on the ASCII chart.

As a few examples, a dollar sign "$" is represented as 36, a question mark "?" is represented as a 63 and an equals sign "=" is represented as a 61. So a question mark would be considered greater than a dollars sign on the ASCII scale because 63 is greater than 36.

### Fun fact about the asterisk symbol

The asterisk symbol * represents a wildcard in Microsoft Excel, SQL and in computer programming. The asterisk, or wildcard is used to represent "everything" or all occurrences of something.

The ASCII number that represents the asterisk symbol is 42. And why is it significant that the asterisk is 42 and represents "everything"?

In the book the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42.

So it's a weird coincidence that the asterisk which is used as a wildcard to represent everything in computer programming is identified as 42 on the ASCII scale

## How to count symbols in Microsoft Word?

There is no way currently to count symbols in Microsoft Word. It can count characters, words, characters without spaces, paragraphs, pages, and lines but cannot count symbols. Neither can Google Docs, the most popular alternative to Microsoft Word.

However, in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, there is a way to count them but it requires you to type a special formula to be able to retrieve it. This can be complicated and hard to remember.

This is why it may be easier to just do a Google search for "symbol counter" and find a website like ours to solve any of your symbol counting needs.

### Many passwords require a certain symbol count

As the dangers of hacking become more and more of a concern, many companies are requiring longer and longer passwords.

Not only are longer and longer passwords being required, but also more complex passwords. In other words, simply having your passwords be all letters may not meet the requirements any more.

Typically, you will need both upper and lowercase letters, a number and yes you guessed it, a symbol. Symbols are very beneficial in adding complexity to your passwords due to the amount of them there are.

## Thanks for using our Symbol Counter tool

Thanks for using our tool! If you need a counter with additional features like paragraph count, letter count etc. please feel free to use the main character counter on our home page. Also, take a look at our latest tool, the tap counter!