Definition of ASCII in Network Encyclopedia.
What is ASCII?
Acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a widely accepted system for coding U.S. English text using numeric values. The purpose of ASCII is to allow human readable documents to be stored and processed as binary information by computers.
How this works
ASCII assigns a unique numeric value to each lowercase and uppercase alphabet letter, number, punctuation mark, and to certain other characters. For example, the capital letter “A” has the ASCII code 65, while a blank space has the code 32.
ASCII is a 7-bit character set that is the same as the first 128 characters (numbers 0 to 127) of the ANSI character set. The following table shows the various characters in the ASCII character set. The first 32 characters are nonprinting control characters that can be executed from the keyboard by using the Control key combined with other keys.
The ASCII Character Set
Char | Dec | Oct | Hex | Control Key Combination | Description |
NUL | 0 | 0 | 0 | ^@ | Null character |
SOH | 1 | 1 | 1 | ^A | Start of heading |
STX | 2 | 2 | 2 | ^B | Start of text |
ETX | 3 | 3 | 3 | ^C | End of text |
EOT | 4 | 4 | 4 | ^D | End of transmission |
ENQ | 5 | 5 | 5 | ^E | Enquiry |
ACK | 6 | 6 | 6 | ^F | Acknowledge |
BEL | 7 | 7 | 7 | ^G | Bell |
BS | 8 | 10 | 8 | ^H | Backspace |
HT | 9 | 11 | 9 | ^I | Horizontal tab |
LF | 10 | 12 | a | ^J | Line feed |
VT | 11 | 13 | b | ^K | Vertical tab |
FF | 12 | 14 | c | ^L | Form feed |
CR | 13 | 15 | d | ^M | Carriage return |
SO | 14 | 16 | e | ^N | Shift out |
SI | 15 | 17 | f | ^O | Shift in |
DLE | 16 | 20 | 10 | ^P | Data link escape |
DC1 | 17 | 21 | 11 | ^Q | Device control 1 (XON) |
DC2 | 18 | 22 | 12 | ^R | Device control 2 |
DC3 | 19 | 23 | 13 | ^S | Device control 3 (XOFF) |
DC4 | 20 | 24 | 14 | ^T | Device control 4 |
NAK | 21 | 25 | 15 | ^U | Negative acknowledge |
SYN | 22 | 26 | 16 | ^V | Synchronous idle |
ETB | 23 | 27 | 17 | ^W | End transmission block |
CAN | 24 | 30 | 17 | ^X | Cancel line |
EM | 25 | 31 | 19 | ^Y | End of medium |
SUB | 26 | 32 | 1a | ^Z | Substitute |
ESC | 27 | 33 | 1b | ^[ | Escape |
FS | 28 | 34 | 1c | ^\ | File separator |
GS | 29 | 35 | 1d | ^] | Group separator |
RS | 30 | 36 | 1e | ^^ | Record separator |
US | 31 | 37 | 1f | ^_ | Unit separator |
SP | 32 | 40 | 20 | Space | |
! | 33 | 41 | 21 | Exclamation mark | |
“ | 34 | 42 | 22 | Quotation mark | |
# | 35 | 43 | 23 | Cross hatch | |
$ | 36 | 44 | 24 | Dollar sign | |
% | 37 | 45 | 25 | Percent sign | |
& | 38 | 46 | 26 | Ampersand | |
‘ | 39 | 47 | 27 | Apostrophe | |
( | 40 | 50 | 28 | Opening parenthesis | |
) | 41 | 51 | 29 | Closing parenthesis | |
* | 42 | 52 | 2a | Asterisk | |
+ | 43 | 53 | 2b | Plus | |
, | 44 | 54 | 2c | Comma | |
– | 45 | 55 | 2d | Hyphen | |
. | 46 | 56 | 2e | Period | |
/ | 47 | 57 | 2f | Forward slash | |
0 | 48 | 60 | 30 | Zero | |
1 | 49 | 61 | 31 | One | |
2 | 50 | 62 | 32 | Two | |
3 | 51 | 63 | 33 | Three | |
4 | 52 | 64 | 34 | Four | |
5 | 53 | 65 | 35 | Five | |
6 | 54 | 66 | 36 | Six | |
7 | 55 | 67 | 37 | Seven | |
8 | 56 | 70 | 38 | Eight | |
9 | 57 | 71 | 39 | Nine | |
: | 58 | 72 | 3a | Colon | |
; | 59 | 73 | 3b | Semicolon | |
< | 60 | 74 | 3c | Less than sign | |
= | 61 | 75 | 3d | Equals sign | |
> | 62 | 76 | 3e | Greater than sign | |
? | 63 | 77 | 3f | Question mark | |
@ | 64 | 100 | 40 | At sign | |
A | 65 | 101 | 41 | Uppercase A | |
B | 66 | 102 | 42 | Uppercase B | |
C | 67 | 103 | 43 | Uppercase C | |
D | 68 | 104 | 44 | Uppercase D | |
E | 69 | 105 | 45 | Uppercase E | |
F | 70 | 106 | 46 | Uppercase F | |
G | 71 | 107 | 47 | Uppercase G | |
H | 72 | 110 | 48 | Uppercase H | |
I | 73 | 111 | 49 | Uppercase I | |
J | 74 | 112 | 4a | Uppercase J | |
K | 75 | 113 | 4b | Uppercase K | |
L | 76 | 114 | 4c | Uppercase L | |
M | 77 | 115 | 4d | Uppercase M | |
N | 78 | 116 | 4e | Uppercase N | |
O | 79 | 117 | 4f | Uppercase O | |
P | 80 | 120 | 50 | Uppercase P | |
Q | 81 | 121 | 51 | Uppercase Q | |
R | 82 | 122 | 52 | Uppercase R | |
S | 83 | 123 | 53 | Uppercase S | |
T | 84 | 124 | 54 | Uppercase T | |
U | 85 | 125 | 55 | Uppercase U | |
V | 86 | 126 | 56 | Uppercase V | |
W | 87 | 127 | 57 | Uppercase W | |
X | 88 | 130 | 58 | Uppercase X | |
Y | 89 | 131 | 59 | Uppercase Y | |
Z | 90 | 132 | 5a | Uppercase Z | |
[ | 91 | 133 | 5b | Opening square bracket | |
\ | 92 | 134 | 5c | Backslash | |
] | 93 | 135 | 5d | Closing square bracket | |
^ | 94 | 136 | 5e | Caret | |
_ | 95 | 137 | 5f | Underscore | |
‘ | 96 | 140 | 60 | Opening single quote | |
a | 97 | 141 | 61 | Lowercase a | |
b | 98 | 142 | 62 | Lowercase b | |
c | 99 | 143 | 63 | Lowercase c | |
d | 100 | 144 | 64 | Lowercase d | |
e | 101 | 145 | 65 | Lowercase e | |
f | 102 | 146 | 66 | Lowercase f | |
g | 103 | 147 | 67 | Lowercase g | |
h | 104 | 150 | 68 | Lowercase h | |
i | 105 | 151 | 69 | Lowercase i | |
j | 106 | 152 | 6a | Lowercase j | |
k | 107 | 153 | 6b | Lowercase k | |
l | 108 | 154 | 6c | Lowercase l | |
m | 109 | 155 | 6d | Lowercase m | |
n | 110 | 156 | 6e | Lowercase n | |
o | 111 | 157 | 6f | Lowercase o | |
p | 112 | 160 | 70 | Lowercase p | |
q | 113 | 161 | 71 | Lowercase q | |
r | 114 | 162 | 72 | Lowercase r | |
s | 115 | 163 | 73 | Lowercase s | |
t | 116 | 164 | 74 | Lowercase t | |
u | 117 | 165 | 75 | Lowercase u | |
v | 118 | 166 | 76 | Lowercase v | |
w | 119 | 167 | 77 | Lowercase w | |
x | 120 | 170 | 78 | Lowercase x | |
y | 121 | 171 | 79 | Lowercase y | |
z | 122 | 172 | 7a | Lowercase z | |
{ | 123 | 173 | 7b | Opening curly brace | |
| | 124 | 174 | 7c | Vertical line (pipe) | |
} | 125 | 175 | 7d | Closing curly brace | |
~ | 126 | 176 | 7e | Tilde | |
DEL | 127 | 177 | 7f | Delete |
TIP: When you download files using File Transfer Protocol (FTP), you can choose whether to transfer the files as binary files or text files (ASCII files). Use only the ASCII file setting when downloading plain text files – otherwise, files will not be correctly transferred.
ASCII is an acronym that stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. The ASCII code is used in almost every countries in the world.