Vertical line symbols and how they differ
The | on your keyboard is the vertical line, often called a pipe or bar, and its height depends on the font. │ (box drawings light vertical) fills the whole line height and is designed to touch the lines above and below it, so it is the one to use for tables and frames. ┃ is its heavy version, ║ is double, and ┆ ┊ are dashed.
Several look-alikes have their own meaning. ¦ is the broken bar, ‖ is the double vertical line used for the norm of a vector (‖v‖), and ∣ means "divides" in math (3 ∣ 12). For the absolute value bars, see the absolute value symbol page. ❘ ❙ ❚ are light, medium and heavy dingbat bars.
Using lines in bios and Discord
A vertical line is the cleanest way to separate items in a short bio: artist │ she/her │ coffee. It takes less space than a bullet and looks tidy on any phone. Dashed lines like ┆ and ┊ stacked on several lines give an aesthetic, column-like look.
On Discord, two pipes around text (||like this||) turn it into a spoiler, so use ║ or │ if you want lines that stay visible. For long horizontal lines and stacked bars like ☰, see the horizontal line symbols, and for ready-made dividers, the divider symbols.
How to type line symbols
The plain | is *Shift + * on US keyboards, both on Windows and Mac. For box-drawing lines on Windows, hold Alt and type on the number pad: Alt + 179 │, Alt + 186 ║, Alt + 196 ─ and Alt + 205 ═. On a Mac, open the Character Viewer with Control + Command + Space and search "box drawings".
In Microsoft Word, type 2502 and press Alt + X for │. The box-drawing lines join up perfectly only in a monospace font, so use a code block when you build tables or frames. More frames are on the border symbols page.