Jordan Savant // Software Engineer

ASCII Characters

ASCII is a 7-bit character encoding stemming from the mid 20th century. This was before the standard 8-bit byte. Being 7-bit it allows from 0-127 character representations. Computers that began using ASCII in an 8-bit byte world were not held to a standard on what to do with the extra bit and thus used it in a variety of ways including extended ASCII symbols etc. This was before networking was commonplace so interoperability was less of a problem.

UTF-8 accepted and standardized ASCII to 8-bit leaving the final bit required to be zero. You can see vestiges of extended ASCII in various terminal support. The ncurses terminal GUI libraries lets you use (at your own risk) extended ASCII options.

ASCII control characters (character code 0-31)

The first 32 characters in the ASCII-table are unprintable control codes and are used to control peripherals such as printers.

DEC OCT HEX BIN         Symbol  HTML Number HTML Name   Description
1   001 01  00000001    SOH                       Start of Heading
2   002 02  00000010    STX                       Start of Text
3   003 03  00000011    ETX                       End of Text
4   004 04  00000100    EOT                       End of Transmission
5   005 05  00000101    ENQ                       Enquiry
6   006 06  00000110    ACK                       Acknowledgment
7   007 07  00000111    BEL                       Bell
8   010 08  00001000     BS                       Back Space
9   011 09  00001001     HT     	                  Horizontal Tab
10  012 0A  00001010     LF     
                  Line Feed
11  013 0B  00001011     VT                       Vertical Tab
12  014 0C  00001100     FF                       Form Feed
13  015 0D  00001101     CR     
                  Carriage Return
14  016 0E  00001110     SO                       Shift Out / X-On
15  017 0F  00001111     SI                       Shift In / X-Off
16  020 10  00010000    DLE                       Data Line Escape
17  021 11  00010001    DC1                       Device Control 1 (oft. XON)
18  022 12  00010010    DC2                       Device Control 2
19  023 13  00010011    DC3                       Device Control 3 (oft. XOFF)
20  024 14  00010100    DC4                       Device Control 4
21  025 15  00010101    NAK                       Negative Acknowledgement
22  026 16  00010110    SYN                       Synchronous Idle
23  027 17  00010111    ETB                       End of Transmit Block
24  030 18  00011000    CAN                       Cancel
25  031 19  00011001     EM                       End of Medium
26  032 1A  00011010    SUB                       Substitute
27  033 1B  00011011    ESC                       Escape
28  034 1C  00011100     FS                       File Separator
29  035 1D  00011101     GS                       Group Separator
30  036 1E  00011110     RS                       Record Separator
31  037 1F  00011111     US                       Unit Separator

ASCII printable characters (character code 32-127)

Codes 32-127 are common for all the different variations of the ASCII table, they are called printable characters, represent letters, digits, punctuation marks, and a few miscellaneous symbols. You will find almost every character on your keyboard. Character 127 represents the command DEL.

DEC OCT HEX BIN         Symbol  HTML Number HTML Name   Description
32  040 20  00100000                                Space
33  041 21  00100001    !       !                   Exclamation mark
34  042 22  00100010    "       "       "      Double quotes (or speech marks)
35  043 23  00100011    #       #                   Number
36  044 24  00100100    $       $                   Dollar
37  045 25  00100101    %       %                   Procenttecken
38  046 26  00100110    &       &       &       Ampersand
39  047 27  00100111    '       '                   Single quote
40  050 28  00101000    (       (                   Open parenthesis (or open bracket)
41  051 29  00101001    )       )                   Close parenthesis (or close bracket)
42  052 2A  00101010    *       *                   Asterisk
43  053 2B  00101011    +       +                   Plus
44  054 2C  00101100    ,       ,                   Comma
45  055 2D  00101101    -       -                   Hyphen
46  056 2E  00101110    .       .                   Period, dot or full stop
47  057 2F  00101111    /       /                   Slash or divide
48  060 30  00110000    0       0                   Zero
49  061 31  00110001    1       1                   One
50  062 32  00110010    2       2                   Two
51  063 33  00110011    3       3                   Three
52  064 34  00110100    4       4                   Four
53  065 35  00110101    5       5                   Five
54  066 36  00110110    6       6                   Six
55  067 37  00110111    7       7                   Seven
56  070 38  00111000    8       8                   Eight
57  071 39  00111001    9       9                   Nine
58  072 3A  00111010    :       :                   Colon
59  073 3B  00111011    ;       &#59;                   Semicolon
60  074 3C  00111100    <       &#60;       &lt;        Less than (or open angled bracket)
61  075 3D  00111101    =       &#61;                   Equals
62  076 3E  00111110    >       &#62;       &gt;        Greater than (or close angled bracket)
63  077 3F  00111111    ?       &#63;                   Question mark
64  100 40  01000000    @       &#64;                   At symbol
65  101 41  01000001    A       &#65;                   Uppercase A
66  102 42  01000010    B       &#66;                   Uppercase B
67  103 43  01000011    C       &#67;                   Uppercase C
68  104 44  01000100    D       &#68;                   Uppercase D
69  105 45  01000101    E       &#69;                   Uppercase E
70  106 46  01000110    F       &#70;                   Uppercase F
71  107 47  01000111    G       &#71;                   Uppercase G
72  110 48  01001000    H       &#72;                   Uppercase H
73  111 49  01001001    I       &#73;                   Uppercase I
74  112 4A  01001010    J       &#74;                   Uppercase J
75  113 4B  01001011    K       &#75;                   Uppercase K
76  114 4C  01001100    L       &#76;                   Uppercase L
77  115 4D  01001101    M       &#77;                   Uppercase M
78  116 4E  01001110    N       &#78;                   Uppercase N
79  117 4F  01001111    O       &#79;                   Uppercase O
80  120 50  01010000    P       &#80;                   Uppercase P
81  121 51  01010001    Q       &#81;                   Uppercase Q
82  122 52  01010010    R       &#82;                   Uppercase R
83  123 53  01010011    S       &#83;                   Uppercase S
84  124 54  01010100    T       &#84;                   Uppercase T
85  125 55  01010101    U       &#85;                   Uppercase U
86  126 56  01010110    V       &#86;                   Uppercase V
87  127 57  01010111    W       &#87;                   Uppercase W
88  130 58  01011000    X       &#88;                   Uppercase X
89  131 59  01011001    Y       &#89;                   Uppercase Y
90  132 5A  01011010    Z       &#90;                   Uppercase Z
91  133 5B  01011011    [       &#91;                   Opening bracket
92  134 5C  01011100    \       &#92;                   Backslash
93  135 5D  01011101    ]       &#93;                   Closing bracket
94  136 5E  01011110    ^       &#94;                   Caret - circumflex
95  137 5F  01011111    _       &#95;                   Underscore
96  140 60  01100000    `       &#96;                   Grave accent
97  141 61  01100001    a       &#97;                   Lowercase a
98  142 62  01100010    b       &#98;                   Lowercase b
99  143 63  01100011    c       &#99;                   Lowercase c
100 144 64  01100100    d       &#100;                  Lowercase d
101 145 65  01100101    e       &#101;                  Lowercase e
102 146 66  01100110    f       &#102;                  Lowercase f
103 147 67  01100111    g       &#103;                  Lowercase g
104 150 68  01101000    h       &#104;                  Lowercase h
105 151 69  01101001    i       &#105;                  Lowercase i
106 152 6A  01101010    j       &#106;                  Lowercase j
107 153 6B  01101011    k       &#107;                  Lowercase k
108 154 6C  01101100    l       &#108;                  Lowercase l
109 155 6D  01101101    m       &#109;                  Lowercase m
110 156 6E  01101110    n       &#110;                  Lowercase n
111 157 6F  01101111    o       &#111;                  Lowercase o
112 160 70  01110000    p       &#112;                  Lowercase p
113 161 71  01110001    q       &#113;                  Lowercase q
114 162 72  01110010    r       &#114;                  Lowercase r
115 163 73  01110011    s       &#115;                  Lowercase s
116 164 74  01110100    t       &#116;                  Lowercase t
117 165 75  01110101    u       &#117;                  Lowercase u
118 166 76  01110110    v       &#118;                  Lowercase v
119 167 77  01110111    w       &#119;                  Lowercase w
120 170 78  01111000    x       &#120;                  Lowercase x
121 171 79  01111001    y       &#121;                  Lowercase y
122 172 7A  01111010    z       &#122;                  Lowercase z
123 173 7B  01111011    {       &#123;                  Opening brace
124 174 7C  01111100    |       &#124;                  Vertical bar
125 175 7D  01111101    }       &#125;                  Closing brace
126 176 7E  01111110    ~       &#126;                  Equivalency sign - tilde
127 177 7F  01111111            &#127;                  Delete

The extended ASCII codes (character code 128-255)

There are several different variations of the 8-bit ASCII table. The table below is according to ISO 8859-1, also called ISO Latin-1. Codes 129-159 contain the Microsoft Windows Latin-1 extended characters. Results of rendering this character range are determined by the medium. For web UTF-8 is the standard.

DEC OCT HEX BIN         Symbol  HTML Number HTML Name   Description
128 200 80  10000000    €       &#128;      &euro;      Euro sign
129 201 81  10000001
130 202 82  10000010    ‚       &#130;      &sbquo;     Single low-9 quotation mark
131 203 83  10000011    ƒ       &#131;      &fnof;      Latin small letter f with hook
132 204 84  10000100    „       &#132;      &bdquo;     Double low-9 quotation mark
133 205 85  10000101    …       &#133;      &hellip;    Horizontal ellipsis
134 206 86  10000110    †       &#134;      &dagger;    Dagger
135 207 87  10000111    ‡       &#135;      &Dagger;    Double dagger
136 210 88  10001000    ˆ       &#136;      &circ;      Modifier letter circumflex accent
137 211 89  10001001    ‰       &#137;      &permil;    Per mille sign
138 212 8A  10001010    Š       &#138;      &Scaron;    Latin capital letter S with caron
139 213 8B  10001011    ‹       &#139;      &lsaquo;    Single left-pointing angle quotation
140 214 8C  10001100    Œ       &#140;      &OElig;     Latin capital ligature OE
141 215 8D  10001101
142 216 8E  10001110    Ž       &#142;                  Latin captial letter Z with caron
143 217 8F  10001111
144 220 90  10010000
145 221 91  10010001    ‘       &#145;      &lsquo;     Left single quotation mark
146 222 92  10010010    ’       &#146;      &rsquo;     Right single quotation mark
147 223 93  10010011    “       &#147;      &ldquo;     Left double quotation mark
148 224 94  10010100    ”       &#148;      &rdquo;     Right double quotation mark
149 225 95  10010101    •       &#149;      &bull;      Bullet
150 226 96  10010110    –       &#150;      &ndash;     En dash
151 227 97  10010111    —       &#151;      &mdash;     Em dash
152 230 98  10011000    ˜       &#152;      &tilde;     Small tilde
153 231 99  10011001    ™       &#153;      &trade;     Trade mark sign
154 232 9A  10011010    š       &#154;      &scaron;    Latin small letter S with caron
155 233 9B  10011011    ›       &#155;      &rsaquo;    Single right-pointing angle quotation mark
156 234 9C  10011100    œ       &#156;      &oelig;     Latin small ligature oe
157 235 9D  10011101
158 236 9E  10011110    ž       &#158;                  Latin small letter z with caron
159 237 9F  10011111    Ÿ       &#159;      &yuml;      Latin capital letter Y with diaeresis
160 240 A0  10100000    &       &#160;      &nbsp;      Non-breaking space
161 241 A1  10100001    ¡       &#161;      &iexcl;     Inverted exclamation mark
162 242 A2  10100010    ¢       &#162;      &cent;      Cent sign
163 243 A3  10100011    £       &#163;      &pound;     Pound sign
164 244 A4  10100100    ¤       &#164;      &curren;    Currency sign
165 245 A5  10100101    ¥       &#165;      &yen;       Yen sign
166 246 A6  10100110    ¦       &#166;      &brvbar;    Pipe, Broken vertical bar
167 247 A7  10100111    §       &#167;      &sect;      Section sign
168 250 A8  10101000    ¨       &#168;      &uml;       Spacing diaeresis - umlaut
169 251 A9  10101001    ©       &#169;      &copy;      Copyright sign
170 252 AA  10101010    ª       &#170;      &ordf;      Feminine ordinal indicator
171 253 AB  10101011    «       &#171;      &laquo;     Left double angle quotes
172 254 AC  10101100    ¬       &#172;      &not;       Not sign
173 255 AD  10101101    &       &#173;      &shy;       Soft hyphen
174 256 AE  10101110    ®       &#174;      &reg;       Registered trade mark sign
175 257 AF  10101111    ¯       &#175;      &macr;      Spacing macron - overline
176 260 B0  10110000    °       &#176;      &deg;       Degree sign
177 261 B1  10110001    ±       &#177;      &plusmn;    Plus-or-minus sign
178 262 B2  10110010    ²       &#178;      &sup2;      Superscript two - squared
179 263 B3  10110011    ³       &#179;      &sup3;      Superscript three - cubed
180 264 B4  10110100    ´       &#180;      &acute;     Acute accent - spacing acute
181 265 B5  10110101    µ       &#181;      &micro;     Micro sign
182 266 B6  10110110    ¶       &#182;      &para;      Pilcrow sign - paragraph sign
183 267 B7  10110111    ·       &#183;      &middot;    Middle dot - Georgian comma
184 270 B8  10111000    ¸       &#184;      &cedil;     Spacing cedilla
185 271 B9  10111001    ¹       &#185;      &sup1;      Superscript one
186 272 BA  10111010    º       &#186;      &ordm;      Masculine ordinal indicator
187 273 BB  10111011    »       &#187;      &raquo;     Right double angle quotes
188 274 BC  10111100    ¼       &#188;      &frac14;    Fraction one quarter
189 275 BD  10111101    ½       &#189;      &frac12;    Fraction one half
190 276 BE  10111110    ¾       &#190;      &frac34;    Fraction three quarters
191 277 BF  10111111    ¿       &#191;      &iquest;    Inverted question mark
192 300 C0  11000000    À       &#192;      &Agrave;    Latin capital letter A with grave
193 301 C1  11000001    Á       &#193;      &Aacute;    Latin capital letter A with acute
194 302 C2  11000010    Â       &#194;      &Acirc;     Latin capital letter A with circumflex
195 303 C3  11000011    Ã       &#195;      &Atilde;    Latin capital letter A with tilde
196 304 C4  11000100    Ä       &#196;      &Auml;      Latin capital letter A with diaeresis
197 305 C5  11000101    Å       &#197;      &Aring;     Latin capital letter A with ring above
198 306 C6  11000110    Æ       &#198;      &AElig;     Latin capital letter AE
199 307 C7  11000111    Ç       &#199;      &Ccedil;    Latin capital letter C with cedilla
200 310 C8  11001000    È       &#200;      &Egrave;    Latin capital letter E with grave
201 311 C9  11001001    É       &#201;      &Eacute;    Latin capital letter E with acute
202 312 CA  11001010    Ê       &#202;      &Ecirc;     Latin capital letter E with circumflex
203 313 CB  11001011    Ë       &#203;      &Euml;      Latin capital letter E with diaeresis
204 314 CC  11001100    Ì       &#204;      &Igrave;    Latin capital letter I with grave
205 315 CD  11001101    Í       &#205;      &Iacute;    Latin capital letter I with acute
206 316 CE  11001110    Î       &#206;      &Icirc;     Latin capital letter I with circumflex
207 317 CF  11001111    Ï       &#207;      &Iuml;      Latin capital letter I with diaeresis
208 320 D0  11010000    Ð       &#208;      &ETH;       Latin capital letter ETH
209 321 D1  11010001    Ñ       &#209;      &Ntilde;    Latin capital letter N with tilde
210 322 D2  11010010    Ò       &#210;      &Ograve;    Latin capital letter O with grave
211 323 D3  11010011    Ó       &#211;      &Oacute;    Latin capital letter O with acute
212 324 D4  11010100    Ô       &#212;      &Ocirc;     Latin capital letter O with circumflex
213 325 D5  11010101    Õ       &#213;      &Otilde;    Latin capital letter O with tilde
214 326 D6  11010110    Ö       &#214;      &Ouml;      Latin capital letter O with diaeresis
215 327 D7  11010111    ×       &#215;      &times;     Multiplication sign
216 330 D8  11011000    Ø       &#216;      &Oslash;    Latin capital letter O with slash
217 331 D9  11011001    Ù       &#217;      &Ugrave;    Latin capital letter U with grave
218 332 DA  11011010    Ú       &#218;      &Uacute;    Latin capital letter U with acute
219 333 DB  11011011    Û       &#219;      &Ucirc;     Latin capital letter U with circumflex
220 334 DC  11011100    Ü       &#220;      &Uuml;      Latin capital letter U with diaeresis
221 335 DD  11011101    Ý       &#221;      &Yacute;    Latin capital letter Y with acute
222 336 DE  11011110    Þ       &#222;      &THORN;     Latin capital letter THORN
223 337 DF  11011111    ß       &#223;      &szlig;     Latin small letter sharp s - ess-zed
224 340 E0  11100000    à       &#224;      &agrave;    Latin small letter a with grave
225 341 E1  11100001    á       &#225;      &aacute;    Latin small letter a with acute
226 342 E2  11100010    â       &#226;      &acirc;     Latin small letter a with circumflex
227 343 E3  11100011    ã       &#227;      &atilde;    Latin small letter a with tilde
228 344 E4  11100100    ä       &#228;      &auml;      Latin small letter a with diaeresis
229 345 E5  11100101    å       &#229;      &aring;     Latin small letter a with ring above
230 346 E6  11100110    æ       &#230;      &aelig;     Latin small letter ae
231 347 E7  11100111    ç       &#231;      &ccedil;    Latin small letter c with cedilla
232 350 E8  11101000    è       &#232;      &egrave;    Latin small letter e with grave
233 351 E9  11101001    é       &#233;      &eacute;    Latin small letter e with acute
234 352 EA  11101010    ê       &#234;      &ecirc;     Latin small letter e with circumflex
235 353 EB  11101011    ë       &#235;      &euml;      Latin small letter e with diaeresis
236 354 EC  11101100    ì       &#236;      &igrave;    Latin small letter i with grave
237 355 ED  11101101    í       &#237;      &iacute;    Latin small letter i with acute
238 356 EE  11101110    î       &#238;      &icirc;     Latin small letter i with circumflex
239 357 EF  11101111    ï       &#239;      &iuml;      Latin small letter i with diaeresis
240 360 F0  11110000    ð       &#240;      &eth;       Latin small letter eth
241 361 F1  11110001    ñ       &#241;      &ntilde;    Latin small letter n with tilde
242 362 F2  11110010    ò       &#242;      &ograve;    Latin small letter o with grave
243 363 F3  11110011    ó       &#243;      &oacute;    Latin small letter o with acute
244 364 F4  11110100    ô       &#244;      &ocirc;     Latin small letter o with circumflex
245 365 F5  11110101    õ       &#245;      &otilde;    Latin small letter o with tilde
246 366 F6  11110110    ö       &#246;      &ouml;      Latin small letter o with diaeresis
247 367 F7  11110111    ÷       &#247;      &divide;    Division sign
248 370 F8  11111000    ø       &#248;      &oslash;    Latin small letter o with slash
249 371 F9  11111001    ù       &#249;      &ugrave;    Latin small letter u with grave
250 372 FA  11111010    ú       &#250;      &uacute;    Latin small letter u with acute
251 373 FB  11111011    û       &#251;      &ucirc;     Latin small letter u with circumflex
252 374 FC  11111100    ü       &#252;      &uuml;      Latin small letter u with diaeresis
253 375 FD  11111101    ý       &#253;      &yacute;    Latin small letter y with acute
254 376 FE  11111110    þ       &#254;      &thorn;     Latin small letter thorn
255 377 FF  11111111    ÿ       &#255;      &yuml;      Latin small letter y with diaeresis