ASCII Table

ASCII Table – Complete List of Characters, Codes & Values

Welcome to the Easy Converters ASCII Table – your quick-access guide to all 128 standard ASCII characters. Whether you're learning programming, debugging data, or developing web tools, this ASCII chart will help you find the numeric codes, symbols, and control characters used in digital systems and text processing. It's free, simple, and accessible on any device—no download required.

What is ASCII?

ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It’s a 7-bit character encoding system originally developed in the 1960s to standardize communication between computers and devices. Each ASCII character is assigned a numeric value between 0 and 127, representing letters, digits, punctuation marks, and control codes.

Why Use an ASCII Table?

• Programming: Used in C, C++, Python, Java, and other languages for handling characters and byte streams.
• Debugging: Check byte-level values in files, encodings, or networks.
• Text Conversion: Map characters to decimal, hexadecimal, or binary formats.
• Web Development: HTML character entities often refer to ASCII codes.
• Education: A foundational topic in computer science and digital electronics.

ASCII Table Overview

The table consists of 128 characters (from 0 to 127), divided into:

• Control Characters (0–31, 127): Non-printable codes like NULL, ESC, CR (Carriage Return), etc.
• Printable Characters (32–126): Letters, digits, punctuation, and symbols.

Standard ASCII Table (Decimal, Hex, Char)

Dec	Hex	Char	Description
0	00	NUL	Null
1	01	SOH	Start of Header
2	02	STX	Start of Text
3	03	ETX	End of Text
...	..	...	...
65	41	A	Uppercase A
66	42	B	Uppercase B
97	61	a	Lowercase a
122	7A	z	Lowercase z
127	7F	DEL	Delete

Character Classifications

• Digits: ASCII 48–57 → '0' to '9'
• Uppercase Letters: ASCII 65–90 → 'A' to 'Z'
• Lowercase Letters: ASCII 97–122 → 'a' to 'z'
• Whitespace: ASCII 9 (Tab), 10 (Line Feed), 13 (Carriage Return), 32 (Space)
• Special Symbols: ASCII 33–47, 58–64, 91–96, 123–126

ASCII in Decimal vs Hexadecimal

ASCII values are commonly represented in both decimal (base-10) and hexadecimal (base-16) for programming and hardware integration. For example:

• 'A' = Decimal 65 = Hex 0x41
• 'a' = Decimal 97 = Hex 0x61
• '0' = Decimal 48 = Hex 0x30

Control Characters Explained

The first 32 ASCII values and 127 are non-printable characters used for control signals:

• CR (Carriage Return - 13): Returns cursor to start of line
• LF (Line Feed - 10): Moves cursor to new line (Unix)
• TAB (Horizontal Tab - 9): Indents to next tab stop
• ESC (Escape - 27): Used in terminal control sequences

ASCII vs Extended ASCII

While standard ASCII includes characters 0–127, Extended ASCII (values 128–255) was later introduced by IBM and others to include accented letters, box drawing symbols, and other characters used in non-English languages. Extended ASCII is platform-dependent and not always standardized like UTF-8.

ASCII in HTML & Web Development

ASCII codes are commonly used in HTML entities for characters that might break syntax or are reserved:

• & → &
• < → <
• > → >
• " → "

Benefits of Using Our Online ASCII Table

• Fast Lookup: No need to Google individual codes.
• Clean Layout: Mobile-optimized table format for quick scanning.
• Printable: Save or print the table for offline reference.
• Educational: Ideal for programming beginners and CS students.
• Free to Use: No sign-up, ads, or tracking—just a lightweight, efficient utility.

FAQs – ASCII Table

Q1: What is the difference between ASCII and Unicode?

ASCII uses 7 bits and supports 128 characters. Unicode is a modern encoding system that supports over 140,000 characters in multiple languages and scripts.

Q2: Can I use ASCII for international characters?

No. ASCII only supports English characters and symbols. Use Unicode (UTF-8) for multilingual support.

Q3: What does ASCII 0 represent?

ASCII 0 is the NULL character, used as a string terminator in C and many low-level systems.

Q4: Are ASCII values case-sensitive?

Yes. For example, 'A' is ASCII 65, but 'a' is ASCII 97—they are not interchangeable.

Q5: How do I type ASCII characters manually?

On Windows, hold Alt and type the ASCII code (e.g., Alt + 65 = A). On Mac, use Unicode Hex Input.

Final analysis

The ASCII Table is an essential resource for programmers, developers, and tech learners. It forms the foundation of text encoding, computer communication, and data representation. Whether you're studying computer science, working with legacy systems, or writing low-level code, knowing your ASCII values makes you more efficient and effective.

Use this ASCII Table from Easy Converters to explore the building blocks of text in digital computing.

Real-World Use Cases of ASCII

ASCII may seem like a basic topic, but it remains vital in many real-world scenarios. Here are some areas where ASCII still plays a central role:

• Programming Languages: Most languages use ASCII internally for text operations like char comparisons, loops over alphabets, and string manipulation.
• Data Transmission: Email protocols (like SMTP), HTTP headers, FTP commands, and DNS records rely on ASCII-encoded text.
• Embedded Systems: Microcontrollers and Arduino-based devices use ASCII to send and receive characters via serial communication (UART).
• Networking & APIs: REST APIs often send request and response payloads in JSON—an ASCII-based format that's lightweight and easy to debug.
• File Headers: Many file types (e.g., PDF, TXT, INI, CSV) use ASCII-readable headers or content for easy inspection.

How to Convert Text to ASCII

If you want to convert characters into ASCII values manually or programmatically, here's how to do it:

• In JavaScript: Use charCodeAt() → 'A'.charCodeAt(0) returns 65.
• In Python: Use ord() → ord('A') returns 65.
• In C/C++: Characters can be implicitly cast: int code = 'A';

To reverse it:

• JavaScript: String.fromCharCode(65) → "A"
• Python: chr(65) → "A"

ASCII and Network Protocols

Most classic Internet protocols were designed around ASCII. For example:

• HTTP: All headers and methods like GET, POST, 200 OK are ASCII.
• FTP: Commands like USER, PASS, LIST are sent as ASCII strings.
• SMTP: Email servers send ASCII commands like HELO, MAIL FROM, DATA.

Even though modern protocols now support UTF-8, ASCII remains the baseline standard in network communication.

Brief History of ASCII

ASCII was standardized in 1963 by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). It was inspired by teleprinter encoding systems and initially used 7 bits, which allowed for 128 unique characters—sufficient for English and basic programming needs at the time. Over the years, various extended ASCII versions appeared (ISO-8859, Windows-1252) to accommodate other languages, but ASCII remains the core of text-based systems today.

ASCII vs UTF-8: Compatibility

UTF-8 is backward-compatible with ASCII. The first 128 characters (0–127) are encoded the same way in UTF-8 as they are in ASCII. This allows modern systems to use ASCII content without conversion issues, ensuring that legacy documents and protocols remain readable.

Final Thoughts

ASCII is more than just a table—it’s the universal foundation of digital text. Even in a world of emojis, multilingual content, and modern encodings, ASCII still powers the backbone of computing. With Easy Converters’ ASCII chart, you can easily learn, reference, and convert characters for programming, web development, and system integration—all from a simple, free, browser-based interface.

Explore it. Learn it. Bookmark it. ASCII isn’t going anywhere.