ASCII Code

ASCII

Every time a key is pressed on a computer keyboard a signal is sent to the CPU. This signal is call an interupt request because it interrupts the current process and makes the computer deal with it. Each key on the keyboard has it's own unique code or signal that is sent to the CPU. The different codes allow the computer to tell the difference between a key press of the letter 'a' and a key press of the number '3' or a press of the < ENTER > key. With early computers, each designer would create different coding systems. As computer use became widespread, a need for standards was evident. ASCII stands for: American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Most computers use ASCII*. Most ASCII codes are for letters, numbers and punctuation. The other ASCII codes are for instructions that are not printed to the screen but perform an operation, i.e., < DELETE >, < ALT >, < BACKSPACE > and the like. Some ASCII requests are not even made through the keyboard, for example ASCII request number 7 rings the terminal's bell (you know, that annoying "bing" you get when you do something wrong).

*Some European and other nations don't use ASCII, and for some dumb reason IBM came up with their own code called EBCDIC. EBCDIC was/is used in IBM mainframes and usually has to be converted to ASCII(by people like me) before it's of any use to anyone. Another code used with TTY and TDD is BAUDOT.

To learn more about EBCDIC click here
To learn more about BAUDOT click 1, 2, 3, 4.

ASCII Table

Character	Instruction	Binary	Hex	Decimal	HTML Numeric Entity	VBScript
Null Zero	Null	00000000	00	00		Chr(00)
Smiley Face	Start Heading	00000001	01	01		Chr(01)
Smiley(black)	Start Text	00000010	02	02		Chr(02)
Heart	End Text	00000011	03	03		Chr(03)
Diamond	End Transmission	00000100	04	04		Chr(04)
Club	Enquire	00000101	05	05		Chr(05)
Spade	Acknowledge	00000110	06	06		Chr(06)
Circle(black)	bell	00000111	07	07		Chr(07)
Rectangle(black)	backspace	00001000	08	08		Chr(08)
Circle(white)	tab	00001001	09	09		Chr(09)
Square(black)	line feed	00001010	0A	10		Chr(10)
Mars/male	vertical tab	00001011	0B	11		Chr(11)
Venus/female	form feed	00001100	0C	12		Chr(12)
Music note	RETURN	00001101	0D	13		Chr(13)
Two music notes	shift-out	00001110	0E	14		Chr(14)
Sun	shift-in	00001111	0F	15		Chr(15)
Right arrow	data link escape	00010000	10	16		Chr(16)
Left arrow	device control 1	00010001	11	17		Chr(17)
Up and down arrow	device control 2	00010010	12	18		Chr(18)
!!	device control 3	00010011	13	19		Chr(19)
paragraph symbol	device control 4	00010100	14	20		Chr(20)
Site mark	negative acknowlege	00010101	15	21		Chr(21)
-	synch idle	00010110	16	22		Chr(22)
Double arrow(U&D w/line)	end trans block	00010111	17	23		Chr(23)
Up arrow	cancel	00011000	18	24		Chr(24)
Down arrow	end of medium	00011001	19	25		Chr(25)
arrow right	substitute	00011010	1A	26		Chr(26)
arrow left	escape	00011011	1B	27		Chr(27)
90 degree angle	file separator	00011100	1C	28		Chr(28)
double arrow	group separator	00011101	1D	29		Chr(29)
up triangle	record separator	00011110	1E	30		Chr(30)
down triangle	unit separator	00011111	1F	31		Chr(31)
Space	Space	00100000	20	32		Chr(32)
!		00100001	21	33	!	Chr(33)
"		00100010	22	34	"	Chr(34)
#		00100011	23	35	#	Chr(35)
$		00100100	24	36	$	Chr(36)
%		00100101	25	37	%	Chr(37)
&		00100110	26	38	&	Chr(38)
'		00100111	27	39	'	Chr(39)
(		00101000	28	40	(	Chr(40)
)		00101001	29	41	)	Chr(41)
*		00101010	2A	42	*	Chr(42)
+		00101011	2B	43	+	Chr(43)
,		00101100	2C	44	,	Chr(44)
-		00101101	2D	45	-	Chr(45)
.		00101110	2E	46	.	Chr(46)
/		00101111	2F	47	/	Chr(47)
0		00110000	30	48	0	Chr(48)
1		00110001	31	49	1	Chr(49)
2		00110010	32	50	2	Chr(50)
3		00110011	33	51	3	Chr(51)
4		00110100	34	52	4	Chr(52)
5		00110101	35	53	5	Chr(53)
6		00110110	36	54	6	Chr(54)
7		00110111	37	55	7	Chr(55)
8		00111000	38	56	8	Chr(56)
9		00111001	39	57	9	Chr(57)
:		00111010	3A	58	:	Chr(58)
;		00111011	3B	59	;	Chr(59)
<		00111100	3C	60	<	Chr(60)
=		00111101	3D	61	=	Chr(61)
>		00111110	3E	62	>	Chr(62)
?		00111111	3F	63	?	Chr(63)
@		01000000	40	64	@	Chr(64)
A		01000001	41	65	A	Chr(65)
B		01000010	42	66	B	Chr(66)
C		01000011	43	67	C	Chr(67)
D		01000100	44	68	D	Chr(68)
E		01000101	45	69	E	Chr(69)
F		01000110	46	70	F	Chr(70)
G		01000111	47	71	G	Chr(71)
H		01001000	48	72	H	Chr(72)
I		01001001	49	73	I	Chr(73)
J		01001010	4A	74	J	Chr(74)
K		01001011	4B	75	K	Chr(75)
L		01001100	4C	76	L	Chr(76)
M		01001101	4D	77	M	Chr(77)
N		01001110	4E	78	N	Chr(78)
O		01001111	4F	79	O	Chr(79)
P		01010000	50	80	P	Chr(80)
Q		01010001	51	81	Q	Chr(81)
R		01010010	52	82	R	Chr(82)
S		01010011	53	83	S	Chr(83)
T		01010100	54	84	T	Chr(84)
U		01010101	55	85	U	Chr(85)
V		01010110	56	86	V	Chr(86)
W		01010111	57	87	W	Chr(87)
X		01011000	58	88	X	Chr(88)
Y		01011001	59	89	Y	Chr(89)
Z		01011010	5A	90	Z	Chr(90)
[		01011011	5B	91	[	Chr(91)
\		01011100	5C	92	\	Chr(92)
]		01011101	5D	93	]	Chr(93)
^		01011110	5E	94	^	Chr(94)
_		01011111	5F	95	_	Chr(95)
$		01100000	60	96	`	Chr(96)
a		01100001	61	97	a	Chr(97)
b		01100010	62	98	b	Chr(98)
c		01100011	63	99	c	Chr(99)
d		01100100	64	100	d	Chr(100)
e		01100101	65	101	e	Chr(101)
f		01100110	66	102	f	Chr(102)
g		01100111	67	103	g	Chr(103)
h		01101000	68	104	h	Chr(104)
i		01101001	69	105	i	Chr(105)
j		01101010	6A	106	j	Chr(106)
k		01101011	6B	107	k	Chr(107)
l		01101100	6C	108	l	Chr(108)
m		01101101	6D	109	m	Chr(109)
n		01101110	6E	110	n	Chr(110)
o		01101111	6F	111	o	Chr(111)
p		01110000	70	112	p	Chr(112)
q		01110001	71	113	q	Chr(113)
r		01110010	72	114	r	Chr(114)
s		01110011	73	115	s	Chr(115)
t		01110100	74	116	t	Chr(116)
u		01110101	75	117	u	Chr(117)
v		01110110	76	118	v	Chr(118)
w		01110111	77	119	w	Chr(119)
x		01111000	78	120	x	Chr(120)
y		01111001	79	121	y	Chr(121)
z		01111010	7A	122	z	Chr(122)
{		01111011	7B	123	{	Chr(123)
\|		01111100	7C	124	\|	Chr(124)
}		01111101	7D	125	}	Chr(125)
~		01111110	7E	126	~	Chr(126)
	DELETE	01111111	7F	127		Chr(127)

More HTML Char entities
iso8859-1 table
ISO Latin 1 Character Entities and HTML Escape Sequence Table
HTML Character Entities