Type null character in terminal

Question

Is there a way to type the null character in the terminal?

I would like to do something like:

this is a sentence (null) test123

Answer 1

In Linux, any special character can be literally inserted on the terminal by pressing Ctrl+v followed by the actual symbol. null is usually ^@ where ^ stands for Ctrl and @ for whatever combination on your keyboard layout that produces @.

So on my keyboard I do: Ctrl+v followed by Ctrl+Shift+@ and I get a ^@ symbol with a distinguished background color. This means it's a special character and not just ^ and @ typed in.

Edit: Several years later and a few input variations implemented by different terminals using keyboard layouts that require pressing Shift to access @.

• Ctrl+v followed by Ctrl+Shift+@
• Ctrl+v followed by Shift+@ without releasing Ctrl.
• Ctrl+Shift+v followed by @ without releasing Ctrl+Shift.
• Ctrl+Shift release Shift and re-press Shift keeping both Ctrl+Shift pressed followed by v and finally @. Seen in some terminals that implement a special input on Ctrl+Shift.