Mac : The Rupee Symbol

 It's amazing how one gets to learn through some accidental usage.

I was writing a blog post on my "Share2Learn" blog and wanted to quote some Python code using the "backtick" symbols. And pressing the "backtick" key ( just below the Escape key ) on my MacBook gave me a "₹" symbol !!!

I was surprised to see it !! My first worry was that something had gone wrong with my system and I had to some how find out another way of getting that "backtick" symbol. I tried a few key combinations and found that I could get it using Option + Backtick

Some Googling helped me learn that this is a new change done in Mac OS 26 ( Tahoe ). And this is done for the India Keyboard layout as shown in the image below

The new ABC - India Keyboard layout on Mac 26 ( Tahoe ) with an Indian Rupee symbol

Pressing the backtick now gives "₹" symbol when using "ABC - India" keyboard as your Input source.

Personally I find it quite odd that the key shows the "backtick" symbol on the physical keyboard where as it displays a "₹" symbol when pressed. But then, may be the people who did this mapping had a strong reason to do it ( and hopefully was not a random choice )

There are other ways to get a "₹" symbol on your MacBook though

• ⬆ + 4 ---> $ ( Shift + 4 )
• ⌥ + 4 ---> ₹ ( Option + 4 ) 
  
• 🌐 + e and then search for "Indian Rupee Sign" ( 🌐 is also called the Function key )

If you have to display "₹" in your program then you can use the following Unicode Number

• Unicode Value : 20B9
• Unicode Name : INDIAN RUPEE SIGN

So, in Python code you could write code in either of the following 2 ways to display Indian Rupee Symbol

>>> print("\u20B9")

₹

>>> print("\N{INDIAN RUPEE SIGN}") 

₹ 

You can find more such useful symbols and their corresponding Unicode names at : https://www.unicode.org/charts/charindex.html#I