Latin Capital Letter B
Uppercase 'B' occupies ASCII code point 66 (0x42), with its lowercase counterpart 'b' at 98 (0x62) derived by adding 32 — the single-bit case offset shared by all ASCII A–Z / a–z pairs. The second letter of the Latin alphabet, 'B' traces its shape through Greek Beta (Β) to Phoenician 'bet', a pictograph representing a house — a lineage echoed in 'alphabet' itself. In hexadecimal notation, 'B' represents the value 11, with most parsers treating both cases interchangeably.
Technical Details
Code Example
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// Case-insensitive comparison using bit manipulationchar c1 = 'B', c2 = 'b';bool same = (c1 | 0x20) == (c2 | 0x20); // true
Common Usage
Hexadecimal and byte conventions: Uppercase 'B' represents 11 in hexadecimal, interchangeable with 'b' in virtually all parsers. Outside hex, 'B' is widely used as an abbreviation for byte (as distinct from lowercase 'b' for bit) — a convention critical in networking and storage contexts where '100 MB' and '100 Mb' differ by a factor of eight. This case distinction is not enforced by any formal standard but is near-universal in technical documentation.
Programming identifiers and naming conventions: In many languages, an uppercase first letter signals a class, type, or constructor — Python's PEP 8 prescribes CamelCase for classes, Java mandates it, and Go uses an initial capital to mark exported (public) identifiers. 'B' therefore frequently opens type names like Boolean, Buffer, BigInteger, and Builder across standard libraries.
Typography and glyph design: Uppercase 'B' is constructed from a vertical stem and two enclosed counters (bowls), stacked vertically. In most typefaces the lower bowl is slightly larger than the upper, a subtle optical adjustment that prevents the letter from appearing top-heavy. Confusability with the numeral '8' and the German Eszett 'ß' is a known concern in UI design and OCR systems.
Diacritical variants: Uppercase diacritical forms mirror those of lowercase 'b': Ḃ (dot above) appears in Irish Gaelic's traditional orthography to indicate lenition, Ḅ (dot below) is used in IAST and similar transliteration systems for retroflex consonants in Sanskrit and Indic languages, and Ƀ (stroke) has appeared in various linguistic notations to distinguish fricative variants from the standard bilabial stop.
Hexadecimal and byte conventions: Uppercase 'B' represents 11 in hexadecimal, interchangeable with 'b' in virtually all parsers. Outside hex, 'B' is widely used as an abbreviation for byte (as distinct from lowercase 'b' for bit) — a convention critical in networking and storage contexts where '100 MB' and '100 Mb' differ by a factor of eight. This case distinction is not enforced by any formal standard but is near-universal in technical documentation.
Programming identifiers and naming conventions: In many languages, an uppercase first letter signals a class, type, or constructor — Python's PEP 8 prescribes CamelCase for classes, Java mandates it, and Go uses an initial capital to mark exported (public) identifiers. 'B' therefore frequently opens type names like Boolean, Buffer, BigInteger, and Builder across standard libraries.
Typography and glyph design: Uppercase 'B' is constructed from a vertical stem and two enclosed counters (bowls), stacked vertically. In most typefaces the lower bowl is slightly larger than the upper, a subtle optical adjustment that prevents the letter from appearing top-heavy. Confusability with the numeral '8' and the German Eszett 'ß' is a known concern in UI design and OCR systems.
Diacritical variants: Uppercase diacritical forms mirror those of lowercase 'b': Ḃ (dot above) appears in Irish Gaelic's traditional orthography to indicate lenition, Ḅ (dot below) is used in IAST and similar transliteration systems for retroflex consonants in Sanskrit and Indic languages, and Ƀ (stroke) has appeared in various linguistic notations to distinguish fricative variants from the standard bilabial stop.