ASCII Table: Complete List Of Characters & Codes

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The ASCII character table is a fundamental concept in computing, providing a standardized way to represent text using numerical codes. This article delves into the details of the ASCII table, explaining its history, structure, and practical applications. — Cowshed Backyard Ultra: Endurance Run

What is ASCII?

ASCII, which stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. It defines a set of 128 characters, represented by the numbers 0 through 127. These characters include: — Creatine Side Effects: What You Need To Know

  • Uppercase letters: A-Z
  • Lowercase letters: a-z
  • Digits: 0-9
  • Punctuation marks: e.g., period, comma, question mark
  • Control characters: e.g., newline, tab, carriage return

History of ASCII

Developed in the 1960s, ASCII aimed to create a universal standard for representing characters in computers. Before ASCII, different computers used different encoding systems, making it difficult to exchange data between them. ASCII helped solve this problem by providing a common standard that all computers could use.

Structure of the ASCII Table

The ASCII table is divided into several sections:

  1. Control Characters (0-31): These characters are used to control hardware devices or provide formatting. For example:
    • NULL (0): Represents an empty character.
    • TAB (9): Represents a horizontal tab.
    • LF (10): Represents a line feed (newline).
    • CR (13): Represents a carriage return.
  2. Printable Characters (32-126): These characters can be displayed on a screen or printed on paper. They include letters, digits, and punctuation marks. For example:
    • Space (32): Represents a space character.
    • A (65): Represents the uppercase letter 'A'.
    • a (97): Represents the lowercase letter 'a'.
    • 0 (48): Represents the digit zero.
  3. Extended ASCII (128-255): This section is not part of the original ASCII standard and varies depending on the system. It often includes characters with diacritics, such as accented letters, and additional symbols.

Common ASCII Characters and Their Uses

Here are some commonly used ASCII characters and their corresponding decimal and hexadecimal values:

Character Decimal Hexadecimal Description
NULL 0 0x00 Null character
SOH 1 0x01 Start of Heading
STX 2 0x02 Start of Text
ETX 3 0x03 End of Text
EOT 4 0x04 End of Transmission
ENQ 5 0x05 Enquiry
ACK 6 0x06 Acknowledge
BEL 7 0x07 Bell (alert)
BS 8 0x08 Backspace
HT 9 0x09 Horizontal Tab
LF 10 0x0A Line Feed (newline)
VT 11 0x0B Vertical Tab
FF 12 0x0C Form Feed
CR 13 0x0D Carriage Return
SO 14 0x0E Shift Out
SI 15 0x0F Shift In
DLE 16 0x10 Data Link Escape
DC1 17 0x11 Device Control 1
DC2 18 0x12 Device Control 2
DC3 19 0x13 Device Control 3
DC4 20 0x14 Device Control 4
NAK 21 0x15 Negative Acknowledge
SYN 22 0x16 Synchronous Idle
ETB 23 0x17 End of Transmission Block
CAN 24 0x18 Cancel
EM 25 0x19 End of Medium
SUB 26 0x1A Substitute
ESC 27 0x1B Escape
FS 28 0x1C File Separator
GS 29 0x1D Group Separator
RS 30 0x1E Record Separator
US 31 0x1F Unit Separator
Space 32 0x20 Space
! 33 0x21 Exclamation mark
" 34 0x22 Double quote
# 35 0x23 Number sign
$ 36 0x24 Dollar sign
% 37 0x25 Percent sign
& 38 0x26 Ampersand
' 39 0x27 Single quote
( 40 0x28 Open parenthesis
) 41 0x29 Close parenthesis
* 42 0x2A Asterisk
+ 43 0x2B Plus sign
, 44 0x2C Comma
- 45 0x2D Hyphen
. 46 0x2E Period
/ 47 0x2F Slash
0 48 0x30 Digit 0
1 49 0x31 Digit 1
2 50 0x32 Digit 2
3 51 0x33 Digit 3
4 52 0x34 Digit 4
5 53 0x35 Digit 5
6 54 0x36 Digit 6
7 55 0x37 Digit 7
8 56 0x38 Digit 8
9 57 0x39 Digit 9
: 58 0x3A Colon
; 59 0x3B Semicolon
< 60 0x3C Less-than sign
= 61 0x3D Equals sign
> 62 0x3E Greater-than sign
? 63 0x3F Question mark
@ 64 0x40 At symbol
A 65 0x41 Uppercase A
B 66 0x42 Uppercase B
C 67 0x43 Uppercase C
D 68 0x44 Uppercase D
E 69 0x45 Uppercase E
F 70 0x46 Uppercase F
G 71 0x47 Uppercase G
H 72 0x48 Uppercase H
I 73 0x49 Uppercase I
J 74 0x4A Uppercase J
K 75 0x4B Uppercase K
L 76 0x4C Uppercase L
M 77 0x4D Uppercase M
N 78 0x4E Uppercase N
O 79 0x4F Uppercase O
P 80 0x50 Uppercase P
Q 81 0x51 Uppercase Q
R 82 0x52 Uppercase R
S 83 0x53 Uppercase S
T 84 0x54 Uppercase T
U 85 0x55 Uppercase U
V 86 0x56 Uppercase V
W 87 0x57 Uppercase W
X 88 0x58 Uppercase X
Y 89 0x59 Uppercase Y
Z 90 0x5A Uppercase Z
[ 91 0x5B Open square bracket
\ 92 0x5C Backslash
] 93 0x5D Close square bracket
^ 94 0x5E Caret
_ 95 0x5F Underscore
` | 96 | 0x60 | Grave accent |
a 97 0x61 Lowercase a
b 98 0x62 Lowercase b
c 99 0x63 Lowercase c
d 100 0x64 Lowercase d
e 101 0x65 Lowercase e
f 102 0x66 Lowercase f
g 103 0x67 Lowercase g
h 104 0x68 Lowercase h
i 105 0x69 Lowercase i
j 106 0x6A Lowercase j
k 107 0x6B Lowercase k
l 108 0x6C Lowercase l
m 109 0x6D Lowercase m
n 110 0x6E Lowercase n
o 111 0x6F Lowercase o
p 112 0x70 Lowercase p
q 113 0x71 Lowercase q
r 114 0x72 Lowercase r
s 115 0x73 Lowercase s
t 116 0x74 Lowercase t
u 117 0x75 Lowercase u
v 118 0x76 Lowercase v
w 119 0x77 Lowercase w
x 120 0x78 Lowercase x
y 121 0x79 Lowercase y
z 122 0x7A Lowercase z
{ 123 0x7B Open curly brace
| 124 0x7C Vertical bar
} 125 0x7D Close curly brace
~ 126 0x7E Tilde
DEL 127 0x7F Delete

Practical Applications of ASCII

ASCII is used in various applications, including:

  • Text editors: Representing characters in text files.
  • Programming languages: Defining variables and keywords.
  • Communication protocols: Transmitting data over networks.
  • Printers: Controlling the formatting of printed documents.

ASCII vs. Unicode

While ASCII was a significant step forward, it only supports a limited set of characters, primarily those used in the English language. Unicode, on the other hand, is a more comprehensive character encoding standard that supports a much wider range of characters, including those from different languages and symbols.

Unicode uses a variable-length encoding scheme, such as UTF-8, which can represent characters using one to four bytes. This allows Unicode to support over a million different characters, making it suitable for representing text in virtually any language.

Why Unicode is Replacing ASCII

Unicode is gradually replacing ASCII because of its ability to support a broader range of characters. This is especially important in today's globalized world, where people from different countries and cultures need to communicate with each other using their native languages.

Conclusion

The ASCII character table is a foundational element in the world of computing. Understanding its structure and usage can provide valuable insights into how computers represent and manipulate text. While Unicode is becoming the dominant character encoding standard, ASCII remains relevant in many legacy systems and applications. By familiarizing yourself with the ASCII table, you can gain a deeper appreciation for the underlying principles of digital communication.

Further Reading:

Call to Action:

Explore the ASCII table and experiment with different characters to see how they are represented in various systems. Share your findings and insights with others to promote a better understanding of this essential concept. — Bob Stauffer: Oilers Broadcaster & Hockey Expert