ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is a character encoding standard that assigns numerical values to 128 characters including letters, digits, punctuation marks, and control characters. It was first published in 1963 and remains the foundation of modern text encoding.

What are ASCII control characters?

ASCII control characters (codes 0-31 and 127) are non-printable characters used for text formatting and device control. Examples include NUL (null), LF (line feed/newline), CR (carriage return), TAB (horizontal tab), ESC (escape), and DEL (delete).

What is the difference between ASCII and Unicode?

ASCII encodes 128 characters (7-bit) and covers only English letters and basic symbols. Unicode is a superset that encodes over 140,000 characters covering virtually all writing systems, emojis, and symbols. The first 128 Unicode code points are identical to ASCII.

Why does ASCII start at 0?

ASCII codes 0-31 are control characters inherited from telegraph and teletype systems. Code 0 (NUL) was used as padding. Printable characters begin at code 32 (space), with letters A-Z starting at code 65 and a-z at code 97.

How do I type ASCII codes on my keyboard?

On Windows, hold Alt and type the decimal code on the numeric keypad (e.g., Alt+65 for 'A'). On Mac, you can use the Character Viewer. On Linux, press Ctrl+Shift+U followed by the hex code.

ASCII Table

Complete ASCII character reference table with all 128 characters. Search, filter by type, and view decimal, hex, octal, and binary values.

ASCII Character Table

Dec	Hex	Oct	Binary	Char	Description
0	00	000	00000000	NUL	Null
1	01	001	00000001	SOH	Start of Heading
2	02	002	00000010	STX	Start of Text
3	03	003	00000011	ETX	End of Text
4	04	004	00000100	EOT	End of Transmission
5	05	005	00000101	ENQ	Enquiry
6	06	006	00000110	ACK	Acknowledge
7	07	007	00000111	BEL	Bell
8	08	010	00001000	BS	Backspace
9	09	011	00001001	HT	Horizontal Tab
10	0A	012	00001010	LF	Line Feed
11	0B	013	00001011	VT	Vertical Tab
12	0C	014	00001100	FF	Form Feed
13	0D	015	00001101	CR	Carriage Return
14	0E	016	00001110	SO	Shift Out
15	0F	017	00001111	SI	Shift In
16	10	020	00010000	DLE	Data Link Escape
17	11	021	00010001	DC1	Device Control 1 (XON)
18	12	022	00010010	DC2	Device Control 2
19	13	023	00010011	DC3	Device Control 3 (XOFF)
20	14	024	00010100	DC4	Device Control 4
21	15	025	00010101	NAK	Negative Acknowledge
22	16	026	00010110	SYN	Synchronous Idle
23	17	027	00010111	ETB	End of Transmission Block
24	18	030	00011000	CAN	Cancel
25	19	031	00011001	EM	End of Medium
26	1A	032	00011010	SUB	Substitute
27	1B	033	00011011	ESC	Escape
28	1C	034	00011100	FS	File Separator
29	1D	035	00011101	GS	Group Separator
30	1E	036	00011110	RS	Record Separator
31	1F	037	00011111	US	Unit Separator
32	20	040	00100000	Space	Space
33	21	041	00100001	!	Exclamation Mark
34	22	042	00100010	"	Double Quote
35	23	043	00100011	#	Number Sign
36	24	044	00100100	$	Dollar Sign
37	25	045	00100101	%	Percent
38	26	046	00100110	&	Ampersand
39	27	047	00100111	'	Single Quote
40	28	050	00101000	(	Left Parenthesis
41	29	051	00101001	)	Right Parenthesis
42	2A	052	00101010	*	Asterisk
43	2B	053	00101011	+	Plus
44	2C	054	00101100	,	Comma
45	2D	055	00101101	-	Hyphen / Minus
46	2E	056	00101110	.	Period
47	2F	057	00101111	/	Slash
48	30	060	00110000	0	Digit Zero
49	31	061	00110001	1	Digit One
50	32	062	00110010	2	Digit Two
51	33	063	00110011	3	Digit Three
52	34	064	00110100	4	Digit Four
53	35	065	00110101	5	Digit Five
54	36	066	00110110	6	Digit Six
55	37	067	00110111	7	Digit Seven
56	38	070	00111000	8	Digit Eight
57	39	071	00111001	9	Digit Nine
58	3A	072	00111010	:	Colon
59	3B	073	00111011	;	Semicolon
60	3C	074	00111100	<	Less Than
61	3D	075	00111101	=	Equals
62	3E	076	00111110	>	Greater Than
63	3F	077	00111111	?	Question Mark
64	40	100	01000000	@	At Sign
65	41	101	01000001	A	Uppercase A
66	42	102	01000010	B	Uppercase B
67	43	103	01000011	C	Uppercase C
68	44	104	01000100	D	Uppercase D
69	45	105	01000101	E	Uppercase E
70	46	106	01000110	F	Uppercase F
71	47	107	01000111	G	Uppercase G
72	48	110	01001000	H	Uppercase H
73	49	111	01001001	I	Uppercase I
74	4A	112	01001010	J	Uppercase J
75	4B	113	01001011	K	Uppercase K
76	4C	114	01001100	L	Uppercase L
77	4D	115	01001101	M	Uppercase M
78	4E	116	01001110	N	Uppercase N
79	4F	117	01001111	O	Uppercase O
80	50	120	01010000	P	Uppercase P
81	51	121	01010001	Q	Uppercase Q
82	52	122	01010010	R	Uppercase R
83	53	123	01010011	S	Uppercase S
84	54	124	01010100	T	Uppercase T
85	55	125	01010101	U	Uppercase U
86	56	126	01010110	V	Uppercase V
87	57	127	01010111	W	Uppercase W
88	58	130	01011000	X	Uppercase X
89	59	131	01011001	Y	Uppercase Y
90	5A	132	01011010	Z	Uppercase Z
91	5B	133	01011011	[	Left Bracket
92	5C	134	01011100	\	Backslash
93	5D	135	01011101	]	Right Bracket
94	5E	136	01011110	^	Caret
95	5F	137	01011111	_	Underscore
96	60	140	01100000	`	Grave Accent
97	61	141	01100001	a	Lowercase a
98	62	142	01100010	b	Lowercase b
99	63	143	01100011	c	Lowercase c
100	64	144	01100100	d	Lowercase d
101	65	145	01100101	e	Lowercase e
102	66	146	01100110	f	Lowercase f
103	67	147	01100111	g	Lowercase g
104	68	150	01101000	h	Lowercase h
105	69	151	01101001	i	Lowercase i
106	6A	152	01101010	j	Lowercase j
107	6B	153	01101011	k	Lowercase k
108	6C	154	01101100	l	Lowercase l
109	6D	155	01101101	m	Lowercase m
110	6E	156	01101110	n	Lowercase n
111	6F	157	01101111	o	Lowercase o
112	70	160	01110000	p	Lowercase p
113	71	161	01110001	q	Lowercase q
114	72	162	01110010	r	Lowercase r
115	73	163	01110011	s	Lowercase s
116	74	164	01110100	t	Lowercase t
117	75	165	01110101	u	Lowercase u
118	76	166	01110110	v	Lowercase v
119	77	167	01110111	w	Lowercase w
120	78	170	01111000	x	Lowercase x
121	79	171	01111001	y	Lowercase y
122	7A	172	01111010	z	Lowercase z
123	7B	173	01111011	{	Left Brace
124	7C	174	01111100	\|	Pipe
125	7D	175	01111101	}	Right Brace
126	7E	176	01111110	~	Tilde
127	7F	177	01111111	DEL	Delete

ASCII Table

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ASCII?

What are ASCII control characters?

What is the difference between ASCII and Unicode?

Why does ASCII start at 0?

How do I type ASCII codes on my keyboard?