ASCII

Definition

ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Each character is represented by a 7-bit terminal code, for a total of 128 characters.

Table

ASCII Characters and their corresponding decimal value:

Dec Char Dec Char Dec Char Dec Char
0 NUL (null) 32 SPACE 64 @ 96 `
1 SOH (start of heading) 33 ! 65 A 97 a
2 STX (start of text) 34 " 66 B 98 b
3 ETX (end of text) 35 # 67 C 99 c
4 EOT (end of transmission) 36 $ 68 D 100 d
5 ENQ (enquiry) 37 % 69 E 101 e
6 ACK (acknowledge) 38 & 70 F 102 f
7 BEL (bell) 39 ' 71 G 103 g
8 BS (backspace) 40 ( 72 H 104 h
9 TAB (horizontal tab) 41 ) 73 I 105 i
10 LF (NL line feed, new line) 42 * 74 J 106 j
11 VT (vertical tab) 43 + 75 K 107 k
12 FF (NP form feed, new page) 44 , 76 L 108 l
13 CR (carriage return) 45 - 77 M 109 m
14 SO (shift out) 46 . 78 N 110 n
15 SI (shift in) 47 / 79 O 111 o
16 DLE (data link escape) 48 0 80 P 112 p
17 DC1 (device control 1) 49 1 81 Q 113 q
18 DC2 (device control 2) 50 2 82 R 114 r
19 DC3 (device control 3) 51 3 83 S 115 s
20 DC4 (device control 4) 52 4 84 T 116 t
21 NAK (negative acknowledge) 53 5 85 U 117 u
22 SYN (synchronous idle) 54 6 86 V 118 v
23 ETB (end of trans. block) 55 7 87 W 119 w
24 CAN (cancel) 56 8 88 X 120 x
25 EM (end of medium) 57 9 89 Y 121 y
26 SUB (substitute) 58 : 90 Z 122 z
27 ESC (escape) 59 ; 91 [ 123 {
28 FS (file separator) 60 < 92 \ 124
29 GS (group separator) 61 = 93 ] 125 }
30 RS (record separator) 62 > 94 ^ 126 ~
31 US (unit separator) 63 ? 95 _ 127 DEL

BEL: when you try and backspace to the end, terminal makes sound

Shift and Control

Info

  • Shift: toggles 5th bit
  • Ctrl: masks (zeros) bits 5 and 6

Examples

  • G: 110 0111
  • g: 100 0111
  • BEL: 000 0111
    • CTRL-g: BEL
  • CTRL-c: EXT (sigkill)
  • CTRL-h: backspace