• A slash looks like this:

/

• A slash is:
• also called a diagonal or a forward slash
• used to replace the hyphen to make clear a strong joint between words or phrases 
• most commonly used as the word substitute for "or" which indicates a choice (often mutually-exclusive) is present. (Examples: Male/Female, Y/N, He/She.
• used to replace the hyphen or en dash to make a clear, strong joint between words or phrases, such as "the Hemingway/Faulkner generation".
• There are usually no spaces either before or after a slash: "male/female".
• often used to separate the letters in a two-letter initialism such as R/C (short for "radio control") or w/o ("without"). Other examples include b/w ("between" or, sometimes, "black and white"), w/e ("whatever", also "weekend" or "week ending"), i/o ("input/output"), r/w ("read/write") and even a one-letter initialism w/ ("with").
• Used between numbers slash means division, and in this sense the symbol may be read aloud as "over".
• Certain shorthand date formats use / as a delimiter, for example "16/9/2003" 16 September 2003.

• "the Ernest Hemingway/William Faulkner generation"
• Male/Female, Y/N, He/She
• "the Hemingway/Faulkner generation"
• R/C = "radio control", w/o = without,  b/w = "between" or "black and white", w/e = "whatever" or "weekend" or "week ending", i/o = "input/output", r/w = "read/write"
• "16/9/2003" = 16 September 2003.