P may refer to any of the following:

  1. P is a keyboard key used with the keyboard shortcuts Alt+P, Command+P, and Ctrl+P.

  2. With Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet programs, “P” is the sixteenth column of a spreadsheet. To reference the first cell in the column, you’d use “P1.”

  3. With Adobe Photoshop, P is a shortcut to select the Pen tool.

  4. P is the SI-derived symbol peta, when using a lowercase p, it’s a pico.

  5. In the phonetic alphabet, “P” is often pronounced as “papa.”

  6. P is the sixteenth letter of the English alphabet. The letter “P” comes after “O” and is followed by the letter “Q.” To create a capitalized “P,” press Shift and P at the same time.

With U.S. QWERTY keyboards, the “P” key is on the top row, to the right of “O” and left of the “[” (open square bracket) key. See our keyboard page for a visual example of all keyboard keys.

Computer abbreviations, Letter

If the “P” key is not working on the keyboard, see: Some keys on my computer keyboard aren’t working.

In ASCII, the uppercase “P” is “080” in decimal (01010000 in binary). The lowercase “p” is “112” in decimal (01110000 in binary).

Doing the Alt code Alt+80 creates a capital “H” and Alt+112 creates a lowercase “h” character.

The number 7 on a phone keypad is used to create an “P” on a US phone.

  • See our P terms for a full listing of computer terms starting with “P.”
  • Computer people and pioneers with “P” first names.