How to type @ on a U.S. keyboard

What is the at sign for?

The at sign separates the user name from the domain in an email address: jane.doe@example.com. It is also used to mention someone on social networks and in chat apps (@jane).

In programming, its role depends on the language:

• decorators in Python (@property) and annotations in Java (@Override);
• CSS at-rules such as @media or @import;
• instance variables in Ruby (@name).

Pitfalls

• Getting “<” instead of “@”? On a Mac with an ISO keyboard, macOS may have identified it as ANSI, which swaps two keys. See The @ key types < (or the other way round) on a Mac.
• Different layout: on a French or Spanish Mac, the at sign is somewhere else. On French – Numerical: @; on Spanish: ⌥ Option+2.
• Do not confuse the at sign with ª (feminine ordinal indicator, used in Spanish and Portuguese), which some layouts also offer.