Ampersand (&) symbol in caption names, group names etc.

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Posted on by kayc529

Hi community! I am still very new to AL and Business Central. When I was studying the codes from the base application, I came across a lot of caption and group names with the ampersand (&) symbol:

What does that even mean?????? What would happen if & is not included?

Thank you!

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Dynamics 365 Business Central

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Khushbu Rajvi. 22,098 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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The ampersand (&) symbol in captions and group names within Business Central (AL code) is used to define keyboard shortcuts or access keys for specific controls, fields, or actions. When a caption includes an & before a character, it allows users to press Alt + that character as a shortcut to quickly navigate to or activate the associated control.
For example, if you define a caption as "&Name", the "N" in "Name" will be underlined, indicating that pressing Alt + N can activate that control.
If the & symbol is not included, no keyboard shortcut will be assigned, and users won't see the underlined character for quick access to that field or action. It doesn’t affect functionality but might reduce accessibility and efficiency for users who rely on keyboard shortcuts.

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kayc529 53 on at

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Thanks Khushbu for the reply.

I tried the keyboard shortcuts/assess keys just now in the Customer List page.

In the codes, they didn't put the '&' symbol in the action DimensionSingle but I was still able to see a shortcut key for that action:

And what's the difference between adding '&' to the caption and having the ShortCutKey property?

One more thing I don't understand is the position of the '&' symbol in the string. Does its position have a meaning?

e.g. &Customer and C&ontact and Co&mment

This is very confusing. Is there a documentation where I can learn more about this?

Thanks!

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Khushbu Rajvi. 22,098 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/properties/devenv-shortcutkey-property

https://yzhums.com/46366/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-keyboard-shortcuts

Sorry for the inconvenience; I was writing code in another language, which is why.
By the way, regarding your question, I don’t think there is any specific meaning for the & in AL code. However, in the system, they generally use & in different places. I have never use & in code.
For shortcuts, you can use the ShortcutKey property in Business Central."

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YUN ZHU 99,049 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi, This is not only the case in BC, for example,

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53333170/what-does-the-keyword-do-on-access-caption-property

Hope this helps.
Thanks.

ZHU

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