The ASCII code is the universal translator of computers, it is responsible for the fact that we can communicate by writing and reading in our language and not by means of ones and zeros, which is how these computers “speak”. If you still want to know more, today we will show you what ASCII code is and what it is for.
Surely we have ever wondered what is the well-known ASCII code . And while it may seem like some way to communicate with aliens or a secret code only used by the military, the ASCII code is directly related to computing and electronics in their purest form. If you still want to know more, today we will show you what ASCII code is and what it is for.
A little history
The ASCII or American Standard Code for Information Interchange was created in 1963 by the American Standards Committee or “ASA”, an organization that would later change its name to the American Institute of National Standards or ANSI. This code emerged as the evolution of the famous Morse code that was used to transmit information through a telegraph .
Initially, the ASCII code included only the uppercase letters, but some time later the lowercase letters and some control characters would be added, thus reaching a total of 128 characters that ranged from 0 to 127 and that would form part of the US-ASCII standard in 1967 . 14 years later, in 1981 , the American company IBM developed a new standard consisting of 255 characters including special letters for writing in other languages and some additional signs and symbols. This standard is known as Extended ASCII or Code Page 437 .
What is the ASCII code for?
The ASCII code is the universal translator of computers, it is responsible for the fact that we can communicate by writing and reading in our language and not by means of ones and zeros, which is how these computers “speak” . Computers internally through ASCII code translate what we type automatically into their respective binary equivalent .
Complete list of ASCII characters
Here is a list of the first 128 ASCII characters so you can use them by combining the Alt key and the code number. For example Alt + 65 will show the letter A on the screen .
ASCII non-printable control characters:
- 00 = NULL (Null character)
- 01 = SOH (Start of Header)
- 02 = STX (Start text)
- 03 = ETX (End of text)
- 04 = EOT (End of transmission)
- 05 = ENQ (Query)
- 06 = ACK (Acknowledgment)
- 07 = BEL (Chime)
- 08 = BS (Backspace)
- 09 = HT (horizontal tab)
- 10 = LF (New line – line break)
- 11 = VT (vertical tab)
- 12 = FF (New page)
- 13 = CR (Enter)
- 14 = SO (Outward shift)
- 15 = YES (Inward shift)
- 16 = DLE (Data Link Escape)
- 17 = DC1 (Device Control 1)
- 18 = DC2 (Device Control 2)
- 19 = DC3 (Device Control 3)
- 20 = DC4 (Device Control 4)
- 21 = NAK (Negative confirmation)
- 22 = SYN (Synchronous Inactivity)
- 23 = ETB (End of transmission block)
- 24 = CAN (Cancel)
- 25 = MS (End of medium)
- 26 = SUB (Substitution)
- 27 = ESC (Escape)
- 28 = FS (File separator)
- 29 = GS (Group separator)
- 30 = RS (Record separator)
- 31 = US (Unit Separator)
- 127 = DEL (Delete)
Printable numeric and special ASCII characters
- 32 = space (Blank space)
- 33 = !
- 34 = “
- 35 = #
- 36 = $
- 37 = %
- 38 = &
- 39 = ‘
- 40 = (
- 41 = )
- 42 = *
- 43 = +
- 44 = ,
- 45 = –
- 46 = .
- 47 = /
- 48 = 0
- 49 = 1
- 50 = 2
- 51 = 3
- 52 = 4
- 53 = 5
- 54 = 6
- 55 = 7
- 56 = 8
- 57 = 9
- 58 = :
- 59 = ;
- 60 = <
- 61 = =
- 62 = >
- 63 = ?
- 64 = @
Capital letters
- 65 = A
- 66 = B
- 67 = C
- 68 = D
- 69 = E
- 70 = F
- 71 = G
- 72 = H
- 73 = I
- 74 = J
- 75 = K
- 76 = L
- 77 = M
- 78 = N
- 79 = O
- 80 = P
- 81 = Q
- 82 = R
- 83 = S
- 84 = T
- 85 = U
- 86 = V
- 87 = W
- 88 = X
- 89 = Y
- 90 = Z
- 91 = [
- 92 = * *
- 93 = ]
- 94 = ^
- 95 = _
- 96 = `
Lowercase letters
- 97 = a
- 98 = b
- 99 = c
- 100 = d
- 101 = e
- 102 = f
- 103 = g
- 104 = h
- 105 = i
- 106 = j
- 107 = k
- 108 = l
- 109 = m
- 110 = n
- 111 = o
- 112 = p
- 113 = q
- 114 = r
- 115 = s
- 116 = t
- 117 = u
- 118 = v
- 119 = w
- 120 = x
- 121 = y
- 122 = z
- 123 = {
- 124 = |
- 125 = }
- 126 = ~
