Cancel character

In telecommunications and character encoding, the term cancel character refers to a control character which may be either of:

1. "CAN", "Cancel", U+0018, or ^X used to indicate that the data with which it is associated are in error or are to be disregarded. Exact meaning can depend on protocol. For example:
   • In some journalistic text transmission formats, it signifies that the preceding word should be deleted; it is sometimes called "Kill Word" ("KW") in this context.<ref>Template:Cite iso-ir</ref>
   • In some Videotex formats, it stops any running macros.<ref name="ir132">Template:Cite iso-ir</ref><ref name="ir135">Template:Cite iso-ir</ref> In others, it clears the current line after the cursor position (compare Template:Control code link).<ref name="ir134">Template:Cite iso-ir</ref>
2. "CCH", "Cancel Character", U+0094, or ESC T used to erase the previous character. This character was created as an unambiguous alternative to the much more common backspace character ("BS", U+0008), which has a now mostly obsolete alternative function of causing the following character to be superimposed on the preceding one.

References

• Template:FS1037C