How do I display the degree symbol in my game’s UI to indicate temperature?

Displaying the Degree Symbol in Unity’s UI

Using Unicode Characters

One of the simplest methods to display the degree symbol (°) in Unity’s UI elements, such as a TextMeshPro component or a GUILayout.Label, is by using Unicode characters. You can directly type the degree symbol into your string literals in your script. For example:

using TMPro; // Ensure you have TextMeshPro imported

public class TemperatureDisplay : MonoBehaviour {
    public TextMeshProUGUI temperatureLabel;

    void Start() {
        float currentTemperature = 23.5f; // Example temperature
        temperatureLabel.text = currentTemperature.ToString() + "°C";
    }
}

HTML Entities for UI Elements

When working with HTML elements within the Unity UI, if needed, you can also use HTML entities to represent the degree symbol. Although this is more common in web development, if you were integrating HTML content in an embedded scenario, the HTML entity could be °. This method ensures compatibility across various platforms and devices.

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ASCII and Alt Codes

If you are inputting the degree symbol in an environment that supports ASCII or Alt codes, such as using an external text editor or input on a Windows OS before importing into Unity, you can use Alt+0176 to insert the symbol. However, ASCII ranges may not always be consistent across platforms, making Unicode or direct entry more reliable within Unity.