Ethyl (E)-3-(anthracen-9-yl)prop-2-enoate.

In the asymmetric unit of the title compound, C19H16O2, there are two symmetry-independent mol-ecules (A and B) that differ in the conformation of the ester eth-oxy group. In the crystal, the mol-ecules form inversion dimers via pairs of C-H⋯O inter-actions. Within the dimers, the anthracenyl units have inter-planar distances of 0.528 (2) and 0.479 (2) Å for dimers of mol-ecules A and B, respectively. Another short C-H⋯O contact between symmetry-independent dimers links them into columns parallel to [10-1]. These columns are arranged into (111) layers and there are π-π stacking inter-actions [centroid-centroid distances = 3.6446 (15) and 3.6531 (15) Å] between the anthracenyl units from the neighbouring columns. In addition, there are C-H⋯π inter-actions between the anthracenyl unit of dimers A and dimers B within the same column.