# Special characters Technically speaking, all characters are special in Raku, since they're all just the result of particular mixes of parse rules. Nevertheless, some characters may appear to be more special than others. (However, we will not document any operators here, which contain plenty of odd characters in Raku.) Sigils: ``` $ Item @ Positional  % Associative & Callable ``` Twigils may occur only after a sigil, and indicate special scoping: ``` * Dynamically scoped  ? Compile-time constant ^ Positional placeholder  : Named placeholder  ! Private attribute . Public attribute/accessor ~ Slang = Pod data < Named match from $/ ``` Quote characters: ``` '' Single quotes "" Double quotes // Regex ｢｣ Quotes that allow no interpolation at all <> Quote words «» Shell-style words ``` Escapes within single quotes: ``` \\ Backslash \' Quote char ``` Escapes within double quotes: ``` {} Interpolate results of block $ Interpolate item @ Interpolate list (requires postcircumfix)  % Interpolate hash (requires postcircumfix) & Interpolate call (requires postcircumfix) \\ Backslash \" Quote char \a Alarm \b Backspace \c Decimal, control, or named char \e Escape \f Formfeed \n Newline \o Octal char \r Return \t Tab \x Hex char \0 Null ``` Escapes within character classes and translations include most of the double-quote backslashes, plus: ``` .. range ``` Escapes within regexes include most of the double-quote escapes, plus: ```  : Some kind of declaration <> Some kind of assertion [] Simple grouping () Capture grouping {} Side effect block . Any character \d Digit \w Alphanumeric \s Whitespace \h Horizontal whitespace \v Vertical whitespace '' Single quoted string "" Double quoted string « Word initial boundary  » Word final boundary ^ String start ^^ Line start $ String end $$ Line end ``` Note that all non-alphanumeric characters are reserved for escapes and operators in Raku regexes. Any lowercase backslash escape in a regex may be uppercased to negate it, hence matches anything that is not a newline. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://trizen.gitbook.io/perl6-rosettacode/programming_tasks/s/special_characters.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.