JSP $ sign what does it mean

Question

<p>Greetings, it is now <c:out value="${now}"/></p>

In this jsp code what is the $ sign actually doing?

Answer 1

It's an expression evaluation.

Answer 2

It Identifies it as an expression, an expression is of the format ${....}, so it's placing your now variable in the page (HTML encoded, since you're using <c:out>).

For the <c:out> encoding comment: You can grab the full spec here, or if you want to learn more about JSTL in general, start here.