Difference Between

Slash vs Backslash

We have all been aware of slash, or, as it is today called to differentiate with backward slash, a forward slash. It is used in English language frequently in place of hyphen, also to place a gap between two alphabets or words. In fact, there are numerous uses of this so called forward slash. However, there is another slash, the backward slash that is used in computing and anyone who has used computers or written a text on a word processor knows it is there on the keyboard above the Enter key. It is an important key in computer terminology, which finds several uses in different operating systems. Thus, we see that apart from very ostensible differences between slash and backward slash, there are many more differences that will be discussed in this article.

To begin with, a forward slash is a common punctuation mark used in English language, whereas backslash is a slash that leans backward and is used as a symbol in computer programming. The most important use of backslash is as a path finder in directories in a windows based system, and as an escaping character in computer languages, mostly C type languages. Slash or forward slash is mostly used in URL addresses. In fact, this slash tells that you are indicating to something separate and external to your system, such as the name of the website. On the other hand, a backslash takes you to something that is inside your computer and multiple backslashes mean you are being taken inside level by level such as drive, folder, and finally file.

One important thing to note is that, as computers are made to recognize these slashes (forward and backslash) as symbols, it is not possible to make use of either of these slashes to name or rename a folder.