ASCII


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

CharDecOctHexControl Key CombinationDescription
NUL000^@Null character
SOH111^AStart of heading
STX222^BStart of text
ETX333^CEnd of text
EOT444^DEnd of transmission
ENQ555^EEnquiry
ACK666^FAcknowledge
BEL777^GBell
BS8108^HBackspace
HT9119^IHorizontal tab
LF1012a^JLine feed
VT1113b^KVertical tab
FF1214c^LForm feed
CR1315d^MCarriage return
SO1416e^NShift out
SI1517f^OShift in
DLE162010^PData link escape
DC1172111^QDevice control 1 (XON)
DC2182212^RDevice control 2
DC3192313^SDevice control 3 (XOFF)
DC4202414^TDevice control 4
NAK212515^UNegative acknowledge
SYN222616^VSynchronous idle
ETB232717^WEnd transmission block
CAN243017^XCancel line
EM253119^YEnd of medium
SUB26321a^ZSubstitute
ESC27331b^[Escape
FS28341c^\File separator
GS29351d^]Group separator
RS30361e^^Record separator
US31371f^_Unit separator
SP324020 Space
!334121 Exclamation mark
344222 Quotation mark
#354323 Cross hatch
$364424 Dollar sign
%374525 Percent sign
&384626 Ampersand
394727 Apostrophe
(405028 Opening parenthesis
)415129 Closing parenthesis
*42522a Asterisk
+43532b Plus
,44542c Comma
45552d Hyphen
.46562e Period
/47572f Forward slash
0486030 Zero
1496131 One
2506232 Two
3516333 Three
4526434 Four
5536535 Five
6546636 Six
7556737 Seven
8567038 Eight
9577139 Nine
:58723a Colon
;59733b Semicolon
<60743c Less than sign
=61753d Equals sign
>62763e Greater than sign
?63773f Question mark
@6410040 At sign
A6510141 Uppercase A
B6610242 Uppercase B
C6710343 Uppercase C
D6810444 Uppercase D
E6910545 Uppercase E
F7010646 Uppercase F
G7110747 Uppercase G
H7211048 Uppercase H
I7311149 Uppercase I
J741124a Uppercase J
K751134b Uppercase K
L761144c Uppercase L
M771154d Uppercase M
N781164e Uppercase N
O791174f Uppercase O
P8012050 Uppercase P
Q8112151 Uppercase Q
R8212252 Uppercase R
S8312353 Uppercase S
T8412454 Uppercase T
U8512555 Uppercase U
V8612656 Uppercase V
W8712757 Uppercase W
X8813058 Uppercase X
Y8913159 Uppercase Y
Z901325a Uppercase Z
[911335b Opening square bracket
\921345c Backslash
]931355d Closing square bracket
^941365e Caret
_951375f Underscore
9614060 Opening single quote
a9714161 Lowercase a
b9814262 Lowercase b
c9914363 Lowercase c
d10014464 Lowercase d
e10114565 Lowercase e
f10214666 Lowercase f
g10314767 Lowercase g
h10415068 Lowercase h
i10515169 Lowercase i
j1061526a Lowercase j
k1071536b Lowercase k
l1081546c Lowercase l
m1091556d Lowercase m
n1101566e Lowercase n
o1111576f Lowercase o
p11216070 Lowercase p
q11316171 Lowercase q
r11416272 Lowercase r
s11516373 Lowercase s
t11616474 Lowercase t
u11716575 Lowercase u
v11816676 Lowercase v
w11916777 Lowercase w
x12017078 Lowercase x
y12117179 Lowercase y
z1221727a Lowercase z
{1231737b Opening curly brace
|1241747c Vertical line (pipe)
}1251757d Closing curly brace
~1261767e Tilde
DEL1271777f 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.

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