Text - The ASCII table

What is ASCII?

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The ASCII table

The ASCII table is divided into 8 blocks of 16 characters each. The blocks are called sticks.

The first 2 blocks are non-printable control codes.

Stick	Position	Octal	Hex	Decimal	Character	Control Code	Control Code Description
0	1	000	0x00	0		NUL	Null
	2	001	0x01	1		SOH	Start of heading
	3	002	0x02	2		STX	Start of text
	4	003	0x03	3		ETX	End of text
	5	004	0x04	4		EOT	End of transmit
	6	005	0x05	5		ENQ	Enquiry
	7	006	0x06	6		ACK	Acknowledge
	8	007	0x07	7		BEL	Audible bell
	9	010	0x08	8		BS	Backspace
	10	011	0x09	9		TAB	Horizontal tab
	11	012	0x0a	10		LF	Line feed
	12	013	0x0b	11		VT	Vertical tab
	13	014	0x0c	12		FF	Form feed
	14	015	0x0d	13		CR	Carriage return
	15	016	0x0e	14		SO	Shift out
	16	017	0x0f	15		SI	Shift in

1	1	020	0x10	16		DLE	Data link escape
	2	021	0x11	17		DC1	Device control 1 (XON)
	3	022	0x12	18		DC2	Device control 2
	4	023	0x13	19		DC3	Device control 3 (XOFF)
	5	024	0x14	20		DC4	Device control 4
	6	025	0x15	21		NAK	Negative acknowledgement
	7	026	0x16	22		SYN	Synchronous idle
	8	027	0x17	23		ETB	End transmission block
	9	030	0x18	24		CAN	Cancel
	10	031	0x19	25		EM	End of medium
	11	032	0x1a	26		SUB	Substitution
	12	033	0x1b	27		ESC	Escape
	13	034	0x1c	28		FS	File separator
	14	035	0x1d	29		GS	Group separator
	15	036	0x1e	30		RS	Record separator
	16	037	0x1f	31		US	Unit separator

2	1	040	0x20	32	[SPACE]
	2	041	0x21	33	!
	3	042	0x22	34	"
	4	043	0x23	35	#
	5	044	0x24	36	$
	6	045	0x25	37	%
	7	046	0x26	38	&
	8	047	0x27	39	'
	9	050	0x28	40	(
	10	051	0x29	41	)
	11	052	0x2a	42	*
	12	053	0x2b	43	+
	13	054	0x2c	44	,
	14	055	0x2d	45	-
	15	056	0x2e	46	.
	16	057	0x2f	47	/

3	1	060	0x30	48	0
	2	061	0x31	49	1
	3	062	0x32	50	2
	4	063	0x33	51	3
	5	064	0x34	52	4
	6	065	0x35	53	5
	7	066	0x36	54	6
	8	067	0x37	55	7
	9	070	0x38	56	8
	10	071	0x39	57	9
	11	072	0x3a	58	:
	12	073	0x3b	59	;
	13	074	0x3c	60	<
	14	075	0x3d	61	=
	15	076	0x3e	62	>
	16	077	0x3f	63	?

4	1	100	0x40	64	@
	2	101	0x41	65	A
	3	102	0x42	66	B
	4	103	0x43	67	C
	5	104	0x44	68	D
	6	105	0x45	69	E
	7	106	0x46	70	F
	8	107	0x47	71	G
	9	110	0x48	72	H
	10	111	0x49	73	I
	11	112	0x4a	74	J
	12	113	0x4b	75	K
	13	114	0x4c	76	L
	14	115	0x4d	77	M
	15	116	0x4e	78	N
	16	117	0x4f	79	O

5	1	120	0x50	80	P
	2	121	0x51	81	Q
	3	122	0x52	82	R
	4	123	0x53	83	S
	5	124	0x54	84	T
	6	125	0x55	85	U
	7	126	0x56	86	V
	8	127	0x57	87	W
	9	130	0x58	88	X
	10	131	0x59	89	Y
	11	132	0x5a	90	Z
	12	133	0x5b	91	[
	13	134	0x5c	92	\
	14	135	0x5d	93	]
	15	136	0x5e	94	^
	16	137	0x5f	95	_

6	1	140	0x60	96	`
	2	141	0x61	97	a
	3	142	0x62	98	b
	4	143	0x63	99	c
	5	144	0x64	100	d
	6	145	0x65	101	e
	7	146	0x66	102	f
	8	147	0x67	103	g
	9	150	0x68	104	h
	10	151	0x69	105	i
	11	152	0x6a	106	j
	12	153	0x6b	107	k
	13	154	0x6c	108	l
	14	155	0x6d	109	m
	15	156	0x6e	110	n
	16	157	0x6f	111	o

7	1	160	0x70	112	p
	2	161	0x71	113	q
	3	162	0x72	114	r
	4	163	0x73	115	s
	5	164	0x74	116	t
	6	165	0x75	117	u
	7	166	0x76	118	v
	8	167	0x77	119	w
	9	170	0x78	120	x
	10	171	0x79	121	y
	11	172	0x7a	122	z
	12	173	0x7b	123	{
	13	174	0x7c	124	\|
	14	175	0x7d	125	}
	15	176	0x7e	126	~
	16	177	0x7f	127		DEL	Delete

Stick	Position	Octal	Hex	Decimal	Character	Control Code	Control Code Description

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What is ASCII?

ASCII is a 7-bit character encoding. The name ASCII is an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

What does this mean? What is a character encoding?

Computers store text as a sequence of numbers.
The association between a number and a character is called a character encoding.

A simplistic character encoding might be 'a' is 1, 'b' is 2, 'c' is 3, etc.

ASCII was one of the earliest character encodings (created in 1960 by Bob Bemer). As an American character encoding (the A in ASCII) it supports American English characters only. The dollar symbol $ is there, but the British Pound £ for example is not.

As a 7-bit character code, ASCII can represent 2^7 (128) different characters. It includes 33 control codes, the 10 Arabic numerals, the Latin alphabet (26 upper and 26 lower), the space character, and various characters for arithmetic and punctuation.

Before ASCII, computer system manufacturers used proprietary character encodings. A document created on one manufacturer's system could not be read on another.
Thus, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange was created.

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