ASCII Characters: Full Table and Code Reference

Q: Can ASCII represent non-English characters?

Standard ASCII (0–127) supports only basic English characters . It cannot represent accented characters or other scripts. That’s why extended encodings and Unicode were developed.

Q: How is ASCII different from UTF-8?

UTF-8 is a Unicode encoding that uses 1 to 4 bytes per character. It is backward-compatible with ASCII: the first 128 characters in UTF-8 are the same as ASCII, but UTF-8 can represent thousands more symbols and scripts.

ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a character encoding standard developed in the early 1960s to enable consistent encoding of text for electronic communication.

Standard ASCII uses 7 bits to represent each character, giving a total of 128 characters.
These include:
- Control characters (0–31): such as newline (LF), carriage return (CR), and backspace. These are non-printable character.
- Printable characters (32–126): including the English alphabet (uppercase and lowercase), digits, punctuation, and symbols.
- DEL (127): a control character used to represent “delete”. This is also a non-printable character.

ASCII was developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) through its committee called ASA X3.2 (later known as ANSI X3), which was part of the American Standards Association — a predecessor of ANSI.

Key people and milestones:

Work began: In the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Finalized: The first version of ASCII was published in 1963.
Primary developer: The effort was led by Bob Bemer, an IBM engineer, often called the “father of ASCII.”
- He advocated for features like the escape character (ESC), backslash (), and curly braces ({ }).
Official standard: ASCII was standardized as ANSI X3.4-1963, and later revised (the most common version being ANSI X3.4-1986).

Why it was developed:

Before ASCII, computers used incompatible, proprietary encodings (like EBCDIC from IBM). ASCII provided a unified standard to encode characters across machines, enabling easier data interchange between systems.

ASCII Chart

␀

␁

␂

␃

␄

␅

␆

␇

␈

␉

␊

␋

␌

␍

␎

␏

␐

␑

␒

␓

␔

␕

␖

␗

␘

␙

␚

␛

␜

␝

␞

␟

␠

“

‘

(

)

–

;

[

]

{

}

␡

ASCII Table

Character	Character Name	Decimal	Octal	Hexadecimal	Binary	HTML Number	HTML Name	Alt Code	Unicode Code Point
␀	Null (NUL)	0	000	00	00000000			Alt 0	U+0000
␁	Start of Heading (SOH)	1	001	01	00000001			Alt 01	U+0001
␂	Start of Text (STX)	2	002	02	00000010			Alt 02	U+0002
␃	End of Text (ETX)	3	003	03	00000011			Alt 03	U+0003
␄	End of Transmission (EOT)	4	004	04	00000100			Alt 04	U+0004
␅	Enquiry (ENQ)	5	005	05	00000101			Alt 05	U+0005
␆	Acknowledge (ACK)	6	006	06	00000110			Alt 06	U+0006
␇	Bell, Alert (BEL)	7	007	07	00000111			Alt 07	U+0007
␈	Backspace (BS)	8	010	08	00001000			Alt 08	U+0008
␉	Horizontal Tabulation (HT)	9	011	09	00001001			Alt 09	U+0009
␊	Line Feed (LF)	10	012	0A	00001010			Alt 010	U+000A
␋	Vertical Tabulation (VT)	11	013	0B	00001011			Alt 011	U+000B
␌	Form Feed (FF)	12	014	0C	00001100			Alt 012	U+000C
␍	Carriage Return (CR)	13	015	0D	00001101			Alt 013	U+000D
␎	Shift Out (SO)	14	016	0E	00001110			Alt 014	U+000E
␏	Shift In (SI)	15	017	0F	00001111			Alt 015	U+000F
␐	Data Link Escape (DLE)	16	020	10	00010000			Alt 016	U+0010
␑	Device Control One (DC1)	17	021	11	00010001			Alt 017	U+0011
␒	Device Control Two (DC2)	18	022	12	00010010			Alt 018	U+0012
␓	Device Control Three (DC3)	19	023	13	00010011			Alt 019	U+0013
␔	Device Control Four (DC4)	20	024	14	00010100			Alt 020	U+0014
␕	Negative Acknowledge (NAK)	21	025	15	00010101			Alt 021	U+0015
␖	Synchronous Idle (SYN)	22	026	16	00010110			Alt 022	U+0016
␗	End of Transmission Block (ETB)	23	027	17	00010111			Alt 023	U+0017
␘	Cancel (CAN)	24	030	18	00011000			Alt 024	U+0018
␙	End of Medium (EM)	25	031	19	00011001			Alt 025	U+0019
␚	Substitute (SUB)	26	032	1A	00011010			Alt 026	U+001A
␛	Escape (ESC)	27	033	1B	00011011			Alt 027	U+001B
␜	File Separator (FS)	28	034	1C	00011100			Alt 028	U+001C
␝	Group Separator (GS)	29	035	1D	00011101			Alt 029	U+001D
␞	Record Separator (RS)	30	036	1E	00011110			Alt 030	U+001E
␟	Unit Separator (US)	31	037	1F	00011111			Alt 031	U+001F
␠	Space	32	040	20	00100000			Alt 032	U+0020
!	Exclamation mark	33	041	21	00100001	!	&excl;	Alt 033	U+0021
“	Quotation mark, double quotes	34	042	22	00100010	"	"	Alt 034	U+0022
#	Number sign	35	043	23	00100011	#	&num;	Alt 035	U+0023
$	Dollar sign	36	044	24	00100100	$	&dollar;	Alt 036	U+0024
%	Percent sign	37	045	25	00100101	%	&percnt;	Alt 037	U+0025
&	Ampersand	38	046	26	00100110	&	&	Alt 038	U+0026
‘	Apostrophe, single quote	39	047	27	00100111	'	'	Alt 039	U+0027
(	Left parenthesis, open parenthesis	40	050	28	00101000	(	&lparen;	Alt 040	U+0028
)	Right parenthesis, close parenthesis	41	051	29	00101001	)	&rparen;	Alt 041	U+0029
*	Asterisk	42	052	2A	00101010	*	&ast;	Alt 042	U+002A
+	Plus sign	43	053	2B	00101011	+	+	Alt 043	U+002B
,	Comma	44	054	2C	00101100	,	,	Alt 044	U+002C
–	Hyphen-minus	45	055	2D	00101101	-		Alt 045	U+002D
.	Full stop, period, dot	46	056	2E	00101110	.	&period;	Alt 046	U+002E
/	Solidus, slash, fraction bar, division slash	47	057	2F	00101111	/	/	Alt 047	U+002F
0	Digit zero	48	060	30	00110000	0		Alt 048	U+0030
1	Digit one	49	061	31	00110001	1		Alt 049	U+0031
2	Digit two	50	062	32	00110010	2		Alt 050	U+0032
3	Digit three	51	063	33	00110011	3		Alt 051	U+0033
4	Digit four	52	064	34	00110100	4		Alt 052	U+0034
5	Digit five	53	065	35	00110101	5		Alt 053	U+0035
6	Digit six	54	066	36	00110110	6		Alt 054	U+0036
7	Digit seven	55	067	37	00110111	7		Alt 055	U+0037
8	Digit eight	56	070	38	00111000	8		Alt 056	U+0038
9	Digit nine	57	071	39	00111001	9		Alt 057	U+0039
:	Colon	58	072	3A	00111010	:	&colon;	Alt 058	U+003A
;	Semicolon	59	073	3B	00111011	;	&semi;	Alt 059	U+003B
<	Less-than sign	60	074	3C	00111100	<	<	Alt 060	U+003C
=	Equals sign	61	075	3D	00111101	=	=	Alt 061	U+003D
>	Greater-than sign	62	076	3E	00111110	>	>	Alt 062	U+003E
?	Question mark	63	077	3F	00111111	?	&quest;	Alt 063	U+003F
@	Commercial at, at sign	64	100	40	01000000	@	&commat;	Alt 064	U+0040
A	Uppercase A, Latin capital letter A	65	101	41	01000001	A		Alt 065	U+0041
B	Uppercase B, Latin capital letter B	66	102	42	01000010	B		Alt 066	U+0042
C	Uppercase C, Latin capital letter C	67	103	43	01000011	C		Alt 067	U+0043
D	Uppercase D, Latin capital letter D	68	104	44	01000100	D		Alt 068	U+0044
E	Uppercase E, Latin capital letter E	69	105	45	01000101	E		Alt 069	U+0045
F	Uppercase F, Latin capital letter F	70	106	46	01000110	F		Alt 070	U+0046
G	Uppercase G, Latin capital letter G	71	107	47	01000111	G		Alt 071	U+0047
H	Uppercase H, Latin capital letter H	72	110	48	01001000	H		Alt 072	U+0048
I	Uppercase I, Latin capital letter I	73	111	49	01001001	I		Alt 073	U+0049
J	Uppercase J, Latin capital letter J	74	112	4A	01001010	J		Alt 074	U+004A
K	Uppercase K, Latin capital letter K	75	113	4B	01001011	K		Alt 075	U+004B
L	Uppercase L, Latin capital letter L	76	114	4C	01001100	L		Alt 076	U+004C
M	Uppercase M, Latin capital letter M	77	115	4D	01001101	M		Alt 077	U+004D
N	Uppercase N, Latin capital letter N	78	116	4E	01001110	N		Alt 078	U+004E
O	Uppercase O, Latin capital letter O	79	117	4F	01001111	O		Alt 079	U+004F
P	Uppercase P, Latin capital letter P	80	120	50	01010000	P		Alt 080	U+0050
Q	Uppercase Q, Latin capital letter Q	81	121	51	01010001	Q		Alt 081	U+0051
R	Uppercase R, Latin capital letter R	82	122	52	01010010	R		Alt 082	U+0052
S	Uppercase S, Latin capital letter S	83	123	53	01010011	S		Alt 083	U+0053
T	Uppercase T, Latin capital letter T	84	124	54	01010100	T		Alt 084	U+0054
U	Uppercase U, Latin capital letter U	85	125	55	01010101	U		Alt 085	U+0055
V	Uppercase V, Latin capital letter V	86	126	56	01010110	V		Alt 086	U+0056
W	Uppercase W, Latin capital letter W	87	127	57	01010111	W		Alt 087	U+0057
X	Uppercase X, Latin capital letter X	88	130	58	01011000	X		Alt 088	U+0058
Y	Uppercase Y, Latin capital letter Y	89	131	59	01011001	Y		Alt 089	U+0059
Z	Uppercase Z, Latin capital letter Z	90	132	5A	01011010	Z		Alt 090	U+005A
[	Opening bracket, Left square bracket	91	133	5B	01011011	[	[	Alt 091	U+005B
\	Backslash, reverse solidus	92	134	5C	01011100	\	\	Alt 092	U+005C
]	Closing bracket, right square bracket	93	135	5D	01011101	]	]	Alt 093	U+005D
^	Caret, circumflex accent	94	136	5E	01011110	^	&Hat;	Alt 094	U+005E
_	Underscore, low line	95	137	5F	01011111	_	&lowbar;	Alt 095	U+005F
`	Grave accent	96	140	60	01100000	`	&grave;	Alt 096	U+0060
a	Lowercase a, Latin small letter a	97	141	61	01100001	a		Alt 097	U+0061
b	Lowercase b, Latin small letter b	98	142	62	01100010	b		Alt 098	U+0062
c	Lowercase c, Latin small letter c	99	143	63	01100011	c		Alt 099	U+0063
d	Lowercase d, Latin small letter d	100	144	64	01100100	d		Alt 0100	U+0064
e	Lowercase e, Latin small letter e	101	145	65	01100101	e		Alt 0101	U+0065
f	Lowercase f, Latin small letter f	102	146	66	01100110	f		Alt 0102	U+0066
g	Lowercase g, Latin small letter g	103	147	67	01100111	g		Alt 0103	U+0067
h	Lowercase h, Latin small letter h	104	150	68	01101000	h		Alt 0104	U+0068
i	Lowercase i, Latin small letter i	105	151	69	01101001	i		Alt 0105	U+0069
j	Lowercase j, Latin small letter j	106	152	6A	01101010	j		Alt 0106	U+006A
k	Lowercase k, Latin small letter k	107	153	6B	01101011	k		Alt 0107	U+006B
l	Lowercase l, Latin small letter l	108	154	6C	01101100	l		Alt 0108	U+006C
m	Lowercase m, Latin small letter m	109	155	6D	01101101	m		Alt 0109	U+006D
n	Lowercase n, Latin small letter n	110	156	6E	01101110	n		Alt 0110	U+006E
o	Lowercase o, Latin small letter o	111	157	6F	01101111	o		Alt 0111	U+006F
p	Lowercase p, Latin small letter p	112	160	70	01110000	p		Alt 0112	U+0070
q	Lowercase q, Latin small letter q	113	161	71	01110001	q		Alt 0113	U+0071
r	Lowercase r, Latin small letter r	114	162	72	01110010	r		Alt 0114	U+0072
s	Lowercase s, Latin small letter s	115	163	73	01110011	s		Alt 0115	U+0073
t	Lowercase t, Latin small letter t	116	164	74	01110100	t		Alt 0116	U+0074
u	Lowercase u, Latin small letter u	117	165	75	01110101	u		Alt 0117	U+0075
v	Lowercase v, Latin small letter v	118	166	76	01110110	v		Alt 0118	U+0076
w	Lowercase w, Latin small letter w	119	167	77	01110111	w		Alt 0119	U+0077
x	Lowercase x, Latin small letter x	120	170	78	01111000	x		Alt 0120	U+0078
y	Lowercase y, Latin small letter y	121	171	79	01111001	y		Alt 0121	U+0079
z	Lowercase z, Latin small letter z	122	172	7A	01111010	z		Alt 0122	U+007A
{	Opening brace, left curly bracket	123	173	7B	01111011	{	{	Alt 0123	U+007B
\|	Vertical bar, vertical line	124	174	7C	01111100	\|	\|	Alt 0124	U+007C
}	Closing brace, right curly bracket	125	175	7D	01111101	}	}	Alt 0125	U+007D
~	Equivalency sign, tilde, swung dash	126	176	7E	01111110	~	&tilde;	Alt 0126	U+007E
␡	Delete (DEL)	127	177	7F	01111111			Alt 0127	U+007F

Frequently Asked Questions About ASCII

How does ASCII relate to ISO-8859-1?

ASCII and ISO-8859-1 (also known as Latin-1) are compatible in their first 128 code points (0–127). ISO-8859-1 is an 8-bit extension of ASCII, adding characters (128–255) for Western European languages (like ñ, ö, and ß). So, any valid ASCII text is also valid ISO-8859-1 text.

How does ASCII relate to IBM Code Page 437?

IBM Code Page 437 was the original character set for the IBM PC. It uses ASCII for the first 128 characters and adds graphical, box-drawing, and accented characters in the 128–255 range. It’s considered an “extended ASCII” encoding and is backward-compatible with standard ASCII.

How does ASCII relate to Windows Code Page 1252?

Windows Code Page 1252 (Windows Latin-1) is a Microsoft extension of ISO-8859-1. Like other extended ASCII sets, it keeps ASCII (0–127) intact and reassigns some positions (128–159) to include additional printable characters like smart quotes (“, ”) and the Euro sign (€). It’s backward-compatible with ASCII but not fully with ISO-8859-1.

How does ASCII relate to Mac OS Roman?

Mac OS Roman is the legacy character set used in classic Mac systems. It preserves the 7-bit ASCII standard (0–127) and uses the 128–255 range for characters like accented letters, mathematical symbols, and Mac-specific icons like the Apple logo (). It’s ASCII-compatible but differs from other extended encodings like Windows-1252.

How does ASCII relate to Unicode?

Unicode is a universal character encoding standard that includes ASCII as its first 128 code points (U+0000 to U+007F). This means ASCII is fully embedded within Unicode. Encodings like UTF-8 are also backward-compatible with ASCII, making ASCII text valid UTF-8.

Are the ASCII control characters still used in present day?

Some ASCII control characters are still used today, especially in network protocols and programming. Examples include:
• LF (Line Feed, 10) – used as a newline in Unix/Linux.
• CR (Carriage Return, 13) – used in combination with LF on Windows.
• TAB (9) – horizontal tab character. Others, like BEL (7) or ESC (27), are largely obsolete outside niche or legacy systems.

What does it mean when someone asks for a file in plain-text ASCII?

They’re asking for a file that:
• Contains only basic, human-readable characters from the ASCII set (usually 0–127).
• Has no formatting, styling, or binary data — just plain characters like letters, digits, and symbols. This is typically used for simple logs, config files, or source code.

What is extended ASCII? Is it a formal standard?

“Extended ASCII” refers to any 8-bit encoding that builds on the 7-bit ASCII by using the 128–255 range for additional characters. It’s not a formal standard — different systems (like ISO-8859-1, CP437, Mac Roman, Windows-1252) have different extended characters. The term is informal and varies by context.

Can ASCII represent non-English characters?

Standard ASCII (0–127) supports only basic English characters. It cannot represent accented characters or other scripts. That’s why extended encodings and Unicode were developed.

How is ASCII different from UTF-8?

UTF-8 is a Unicode encoding that uses 1 to 4 bytes per character. It is backward-compatible with ASCII: the first 128 characters in UTF-8 are the same as ASCII, but UTF-8 can represent thousands more symbols and scripts.

Key people and milestones:

Why it was developed:

ASCII Chart

ASCII Table

Frequently Asked Questions About ASCII

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