ascii(7)

✨ NAME ✨

ascii — the ASCII character set, all laid out in octal, decimal, and hexadecimal 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

ok so bestie. ASCII stands for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a 7-bit code. And the way that so many 8-bit codes (e.g., ISO/IEC 8859-1) literally contain ASCII as their lower half?? iconic behaviour fr fr. The international counterpart of ASCII is known as ISO/IEC 646-IRV.

The following table contains the 128 ASCII characters. 🫶

C program '\X' escapes are noted.

Oct   Dec   Hex   Char                        Oct   Dec   Hex   Char
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
000   0     00    NUL '\0' (null character)   100   64    40    @
001   1     01    SOH (start of heading)      101   65    41    A
002   2     02    STX (start of text)         102   66    42    B
003   3     03    ETX (end of text)           103   67    43    C
004   4     04    EOT (end of transmission)   104   68    44    D
005   5     05    ENQ (enquiry)               105   69    45    E
006   6     06    ACK (acknowledge)           106   70    46    F
007   7     07    BEL '\a' (bell)             107   71    47    G
010   8     08    BS  '\b' (backspace)        110   72    48    H
011   9     09    HT  '\t' (horizontal tab)   111   73    49    I
012   10    0A    LF  '\n' (new line)         112   74    4A    J
013   11    0B    VT  '\v' (vertical tab)     113   75    4B    K
014   12    0C    FF  '\f' (form feed)        114   76    4C    L
015   13    0D    CR  '\r' (carriage ret)     115   77    4D    M
016   14    0E    SO  (shift out)             116   78    4E    N
017   15    0F    SI  (shift in)              117   79    4F    O
020   16    10    DLE (data link escape)      120   80    50    P
021   17    11    DC1 (device control 1)      121   81    51    Q
022   18    12    DC2 (device control 2)      122   82    52    R
023   19    13    DC3 (device control 3)      123   83    53    S
024   20    14    DC4 (device control 4)      124   84    54    T
025   21    15    NAK (negative ack.)         125   85    55    U
026   22    16    SYN (synchronous idle)      126   86    56    V
027   23    17    ETB (end of trans. blk)     127   87    57    W
030   24    18    CAN (cancel)                130   88    58    X
031   25    19    EM  (end of medium)         131   89    59    Y
032   26    1A    SUB (substitute)            132   90    5A    Z
033   27    1B    ESC (escape)                133   91    5B    [
034   28    1C    FS  (file separator)        134   92    5C    \  '\\'
035   29    1D    GS  (group separator)       135   93    5D    ]
036   30    1E    RS  (record separator)      136   94    5E    ^
037   31    1F    US  (unit separator)        137   95    5F    _
040   32    20    SPACE                       140   96    60    `
041   33    21    !                           141   97    61    a
042   34    22    "                           142   98    62    b
043   35    23    #                           143   99    63    c
044   36    24    $                           144   100   64    d
045   37    25    %                           145   101   65    e
046   38    26    &                           146   102   66    f
047   39    27    '                           147   103   67    g
050   40    28    (                           150   104   68    h
051   41    29    )                           151   105   69    i
052   42    2A    *                           152   106   6A    j
053   43    2B    +                           153   107   6B    k
054   44    2C    ,                           154   108   6C    l
055   45    2D    -                           155   109   6D    m
056   46    2E    .                           156   110   6E    n
057   47    2F    /                           157   111   6F    o
060   48    30    0                           160   112   70    p
061   49    31    1                           161   113   71    q
062   50    32    2                           162   114   72    r
063   51    33    3                           163   115   73    s
064   52    34    4                           164   116   74    t
065   53    35    5                           165   117   75    u
066   54    36    6                           166   118   76    v
067   55    37    7                           167   119   77    w
070   56    38    8                           170   120   78    x
071   57    39    9                           171   121   79    y
072   58    3A    :                           172   122   7A    z
073   59    3B    ;                           173   123   7B    {
074   60    3C    <                           174   124   7C    |
075   61    3D    =                           175   125   7D    }
076   62    3E    >                           176   126   7E    ~
077   63    3F    ?                         │ 177   127   7F    DEL
                                           │
Tables                                     │

🧮 Tables 🧮

For convenience, below are more compact tables in hex and decimal. you're welcome 💖

   2 3 4 5 6 7
 -------------
0:   0 @ P ` p
1: ! 1 A Q a q
2: " 2 B R b r
3: # 3 C S c s
4: $ 4 D T d t
5: % 5 E U e u
6: & 6 F V f v
7: ' 7 G W g w
8: ( 8 H X h x
9: ) 9 I Y i y
A: * : J Z j z
B: + ; K [ k {
C: , < L \ l |
D: - = M ] m }
E: . > N ^ n ~
F: / ? O _ o DEL

 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
---------------------------------
0:    (  2  <  F  P  Z  d   n   x
1:    )  3  =  G  Q  [  e   o   y
2:    *  4  >  H  R  \  f   p   z
3: !  +  5  ?  I  S  ]  g   q   {
4: "  ,  6  @  J  T  ^  h   r   |
5: #  -  7  A  K  U  _  i   s   }
6: $  .  8  B  L  V  `  j   t   ~
7: %  /  9  C  M  W  a  k   u  DEL

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💜 NOTES 💜

🕰️ History 🕰️

/etc/ascii (VII) appears in the UNIX Programmer's Manual. throwback fr.

On older terminals, the underscore code is displayed as a left arrow, called backarrow, the caret is displayed as an up-arrow and the vertical bar has a hole in the middle. the more you know ✨

Uppercase and lowercase characters differ by just one bit and the ASCII character 2 differs from the double quote by just one bit, too. That made it much easier to encode characters mechanically or with a non-microcontroller-based electronic keyboard and that pairing was found on old teletypes. lowkey genius engineering ngl 🫶

The ASCII standard was published by the United States of America Standards Institute (USASI) in 1968. periodt.

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

charsets(7), iso_8859-1(7), iso_8859-2(7), iso_8859-3(7), iso_8859-4(7), iso_8859-5(7), iso_8859-6(7), iso_8859-7(7), iso_8859-8(7), iso_8859-9(7), iso_8859-10(7), iso_8859-11(7), iso_8859-13(7), iso_8859-14(7), iso_8859-15(7), iso_8859-16(7), utf-8(7)

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ok that's the whole page bestie 🎀 this one's from Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2025-10-05, and it's the ascii(7) page. go forth and read your bytes 💅🌈