When creating a column in a SharePoint list certain characters are encoded. This can make finding the SharePoint internal column name awkward. Or more frustrating is trying to work out what the column name is based on an encoded internal name.
Here is a list of characters you might use in a column name and what those characters would be encoded to by SharePoint when it creates the internal name.
| Character | Description | Hex Code | Internal SharePoint Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Space | 20 | _x0020_ | |
| ~ | Equivalency sign – tilde | 7E | _x007e_ |
| ! | Exclamation mark | ! | _x0021_ |
| @ | At symbol | 40 | _x0040_ |
| # | Number | 23 | _x0023_ |
| $ | Dollar | 24 | _x0024_ |
| % | Per cent sign | 25 | _x0025_ |
| ^ | Caret – circumflex | 5E | _x005E_ |
| & | Ampersand | 26 | _x0026_ |
| * | Asterisk | 2A | _x002a_ |
| ( | Open parenthesis (open bracket) | 28 | _x0028_ |
| ) | Close parenthesis (close bracket) | 29 | _x0029_ |
| + | Plus | 2B | _x002B_ |
| – | Minus or Hyphen | 2D | _x002D_ |
| = | Equals | 3D | _x003D_ |
| { | Opening brace | 7B | _x007B_ |
| } | Closing brace | 7D | _x007D_ |
| : | Colon | 3A | _x003A_ |
| “ | Double quotes (speech marks) | 22 | _x0022_ |
| | | Vertical bar or Pipe | 7C | _x007C_ |
| ; | Semi Colon | 3A | _x003A_ |
| ‘ | Single Quote | 27 | _x0027_ |
| \ | Backslash | 5C | _x005C_ |
| < | Less than (open angled bracket) | 3C | _x003C_ |
| > | Greater than (close angled bracket) | 3E | _x003E_ |
| ? | Question mark | 3F | _x003F_ |
| , | Comma | 2C | _x002C_ |
| . | Period, dot or full stop | 2E | _x002E_ |
| / | Slash or divide | 2F | _x002F_ |
| ` | Grave accent or back tick | 60 | _x0060_ |
In many cases it is best to try and avoiding using these characters in a column name and just stick to alpha-numeric characters.