DESCRIPTION

ASCII is the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a 7-bit code. Many 8-bit codes (e.g., ISO 8859-1) contain ASCII as their lower half. The international counterpart of ASCII is known as ISO 646-IRV.

The following table contains the 128 ASCII characters.

C program '\X' escapes are noted.

Oct	Dec	Hex	Char	Oct	Dec	Hex	Char
000	0	00	NUL '\0' (null character)	100	64	40	@
001	1	01	SOH (start of heading)	101	65	41	A
002	2	02	STX (start of text)	102	66	42	B
003	3	03	ETX (end of text)	103	67	43	C
004	4	04	EOT (end of transmission)	104	68	44	D
005	5	05	ENQ (enquiry)	105	69	45	E
006	6	06	ACK (acknowledge)	106	70	46	F
007	7	07	BEL '\a' (bell)	107	71	47	G
010	8	08	BS '\b' (backspace)	110	72	48	H
011	9	09	HT '\t' (horizontal tab)	111	73	49	I
012	10	0A	LF '\n' (new line)	112	74	4A	J
013	11	0B	VT '\v' (vertical tab)	113	75	4B	K
014	12	0C	FF '\f' (form feed)	114	76	4C	L
015	13	0D	CR '\r' (carriage ret)	115	77	4D	M
016	14	0E	SO (shift out)	116	78	4E	N
017	15	0F	SI (shift in)	117	79	4F	O
020	16	10	DLE (data link escape)	120	80	50	P
021	17	11	DC1 (device control 1)	121	81	51	Q
022	18	12	DC2 (device control 2)	122	82	52	R
023	19	13	DC3 (device control 3)	123	83	53	S
024	20	14	DC4 (device control 4)	124	84	54	T
025	21	15	NAK (negative ack.)	125	85	55	U
026	22	16	SYN (synchronous idle)	126	86	56	V
027	23	17	ETB (end of trans. blk)	127	87	57	W
030	24	18	CAN (cancel)	130	88	58	X
031	25	19	EM (end of medium)	131	89	59	Y
032	26	1A	SUB (substitute)	132	90	5A	Z
033	27	1B	ESC (escape)	133	91	5B	[
034	28	1C	FS (file separator)	134	92	5C	\ '\\'
035	29	1D	GS (group separator)	135	93	5D	]
036	30	1E	RS (record separator)	136	94	5E	^
037	31	1F	US (unit separator)	137	95	5F	_
040	32	20	SPACE	140	96	60	`
041	33	21	!	141	97	61	a
042	34	22	"	142	98	62	b
043	35	23	#	143	99	63	c
044	36	24	$	144	100	64	d
045	37	25	%	145	101	65	e
046	38	26	&	146	102	66	f
047	39	27	'	147	103	67	g
050	40	28	(	150	104	68	h
051	41	29	)	151	105	69	i
052	42	2A	*	152	106	6A	j
053	43	2B	+	153	107	6B	k
054	44	2C	,	154	108	6C	l
055	45	2D	-	155	109	6D	m
056	46	2E	.	156	110	6E	n
057	47	2F	/	157	111	6F	o
060	48	30	0	160	112	70	p
061	49	31	1	161	113	71	q
062	50	32	2	162	114	72	r
063	51	33	3	163	115	73	s
064	52	34	4	164	116	74	t
065	53	35	5	165	117	75	u
066	54	36	6	166	118	76	v
067	55	37	7	167	119	77	w
070	56	38	8	170	120	78	x
071	57	39	9	171	121	79	y
072	58	3A	:	172	122	7A	z
073	59	3B	;	173	123	7B	{
074	60	3C	<	174	124	7C	|
075	61	3D	=	175	125	7D	}
076	62	3E	>	176	126	7E	~
077	63	3F	?	177	127	7F	DEL

Tables

For convenience, below are more compact tables in hex and decimal.

   2 3 4 5 6 7       30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
 -------------      ---------------------------------
0:   0 @ P ` p     0:    (  2  <  F  P  Z  d   n   x
1: ! 1 A Q a q     1:    )  3  =  G  Q  [  e   o   y
2: " 2 B R b r     2:    *  4  >  H  R  \  f   p   z
3: # 3 C S c s     3: !  +  5  ?  I  S  ]  g   q   {
4: $ 4 D T d t     4: "  ,  6  @  J  T  ^  h   r   |
5: % 5 E U e u     5: #  -  7  A  K  U  _  i   s   }
6: & 6 F V f v     6: $  .  8  B  L  V  `  j   t   ~
7: ' 7 G W g w     7: %  /  9  C  M  W  a  k   u  DEL
8: ( 8 H X h x     8: &  0  :  D  N  X  b  l   v
9: ) 9 I Y i y     9: '  1  ;  E  O  Y  c  m   w
A: * : J Z j z
B: + ; K [ k {
C: , < L \ l |
D: - = M ] m }
E: . > N ^ n ~
F: / ? O _ o DEL

NOTES

History

An ascii manual page appeared in Version 7 of AT&T UNIX.

On older terminals, the underscore code is displayed as a left arrow, called backarrow, the caret is displayed as an up-arrow and the vertical bar has a hole in the middle.

Uppercase and lowercase characters differ by just one bit and the ASCII character 2 differs from the double quote by just one bit, too. That made it much easier to encode characters mechanically or with a non-microcontroller-based electronic keyboard and that pairing was found on old teletypes.

The ASCII standard was published by the United States of America Standards Institute (USASI) in 1968.

COLOPHON

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