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description Verbatim text using the `@` enables C# keywords to be used as identifiers, or indicates that a string literal should be interpreted verbatim, or to distinguish attribute names
title Verbatim text and strings - @
ms.date 01/14/2026
f1_keywords
@_CSharpKeyword
@
helpviewer_keywords
@ special character [C#]
@ language element [C#]

Verbatim text - @ in variables, attributes, and string literals

The @ special character serves as a verbatim identifier. Use it in the following ways:

  1. To indicate that a string literal is to be interpreted verbatim. The @ character in this instance defines a verbatim string literal. Simple escape sequences (such as "\\" for a backslash), hexadecimal escape sequences (such as "\x0041" for an uppercase A), and Unicode escape sequences (such as "\u0041" for an uppercase A) are interpreted literally. Only a quote escape sequence ("") isn't interpreted literally; it produces one double quotation mark. Additionally, in case of a verbatim interpolated string brace escape sequences ({{ and }}) aren't interpreted literally; they produce single brace characters. The following example defines two identical file paths, one by using a regular string literal and the other by using a verbatim string literal. This is one of the more common uses of verbatim string literals.

    :::code language="csharp" source="../../../../samples/snippets/csharp/language-reference/keywords/verbatim1.cs" id="2":::

    The following example illustrates the effect of defining a regular string literal and a verbatim string literal that contain identical character sequences.

    :::code language="csharp" source="../../../../samples/snippets/csharp/language-reference/keywords/verbatim1.cs" id="3":::

  2. To use C# keywords as identifiers. The @ character prefixes a code element that the compiler interprets as an identifier rather than a C# keyword. The following example uses the @ character to define an identifier named for that it uses in a for loop.

    :::code language="csharp" source="../../../../samples/snippets/csharp/language-reference/keywords/verbatim1.cs" id="1":::

  3. To enable the compiler to distinguish between attributes in cases of a naming conflict. An attribute is a class that derives from xref:System.Attribute. Its type name typically includes the suffix Attribute, although the compiler doesn't enforce this convention. You can reference the attribute in code either by its full type name (for example, [InfoAttribute]) or by its shortened name (for example, [Info]). However, a naming conflict occurs if two shortened attribute type names are identical, and one type name includes the Attribute suffix but the other doesn't. For example, the following code fails to compile because the compiler can't determine whether the Info or InfoAttribute attribute is applied to the Example class. For more information, see CS1614.

    :::code language="csharp" source="../../../../samples/snippets/csharp/language-reference/keywords/verbatim2.cs" id="1":::

See also