A symbol is a combination of numbers and letters which serves as a unique identifier for a United Nations document. It generally does not give any significant indication of the subject of a document. All language versions of a document carry the same symbol. Symbols consist of a number of fields as follows:

The first field usually reflects the parent organ issuing the document or to which the document is being submitted:

Note that this field ends in a slash (/).

The second, third, and fourth fields, if present, indicate subsidiary bodies:

Note that this field may have two parts, a prefix as shown in the table, optionally followed by a dot and a number (nn) which indicates specifically which subsidiary body or session produced the document. Each of these fields end in a slash (/).

Beginning with the 31st session in  1976, the General Assembly began to incorporate the session number into the symbols of its documents (e.g., A/31/1). Prior to 1976 the session number, expressed in Roman numerals, was parenthetically appended and, from 1976 on, the year was parenthetically appended.

Similarly in 1978, the Economic and Social Council began incorporating the year into the symbols of its documents (e.g., E/1978/1). 

And by 1994, the Security Council began doing the same (e.g., S/1994/1), with the exception of resolutions and meeting records. For those documents, the year is parenthetically appended. 

When not parenthetically appended, the session or year is placed immediately after the committee identification fields and is followed by a slash (/).

The final field indicates the nature and unique number of the document:

Note that this field may have one or two parts, an optional prefix as shown in the table followed by a dot, along with a number (nn) which indicates specifically which document is referenced. Resolutions substitute a slash for the dot as shown.

The suffix field, if present, reflects modifications to the original text after distribution:

Note that this field may have two parts, a prefix as shown in the table, optionally followed by a dot and a number (nn) which indicates specifically which document is referenced. The suffix field begins with a slash (/).

Examples: