Numeric ASCII Code Viewer
Convert between text and ASCII codes with complete reference tables
Text to ASCII Codes
Convert text characters to their ASCII numeric codes
ASCII Codes to Text
Convert ASCII numeric codes back to text characters
What is ASCII?
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is a character encoding standard that represents text in computers and other devices. Each character is assigned a unique numeric code from 0 to 127, allowing computers to store and transmit text data consistently across different systems and platforms.
Originally developed in the 1960s, ASCII became the foundation for most character encoding systems used today. The standard includes printable characters (letters, numbers, punctuation), control characters (for text formatting and device control), and special characters. Extended ASCII (codes 128-255) adds additional characters for international languages and special symbols.
ASCII Character Categories
- Control Characters (0-31, 127): Non-printable characters for device control and text formatting
- Printable Characters (32-126): Letters, numbers, punctuation, and symbols
- Extended ASCII (128-255): Additional characters for international languages and symbols
How to Use the ASCII Code Viewer
Text to ASCII Conversion
- Enter your text in the "Input Text" field
- The tool automatically displays ASCII codes for each character
- View detailed character information including hex, octal, and binary representations
- Copy the ASCII codes to clipboard or export as CSV for external use
ASCII to Text Conversion
- Enter ASCII codes (0-255) separated by spaces or commas
- The tool converts codes back to their corresponding characters
- Preview the resulting text and character details
- Copy the converted text for use in other applications
Using Reference Tables
- Browse printable ASCII characters (32-126) for quick reference
- View control characters (0-31) with their standard names and descriptions
- Explore extended ASCII characters (128-255) for international support
- Access hex, octal, and binary representations for programming needs
ASCII Character Sets Explained
Printable ASCII (32-126)
These are the standard visible characters including uppercase and lowercase letters (A-Z, a-z), digits (0-9), punctuation marks, and special symbols. This range includes the space character (32) and common symbols like !, @, #, $, %, etc.
Examples: 'A' = 65, 'a' = 97, '0' = 48, ' ' = 32, '!' = 33
Control Characters (0-31, 127)
Non-printable characters originally designed for controlling teletype machines and early computer terminals. Many are still used today for text formatting and data transmission control.
Common examples: TAB (9), Line Feed/LF (10), Carriage Return/CR (13), ESC (27), DEL (127)
Extended ASCII (128-255)
Additional characters beyond the original ASCII standard, including accented letters for European languages, mathematical symbols, box-drawing characters, and other special symbols. The specific characters vary between different extended ASCII code pages.
Examples: 'á' = 160, '©' = 169, '°' = 176, '½' = 189 (varies by code page)
Practical Applications
Programming and Development
- Character Validation: Check if input contains only printable ASCII characters
- Data Encoding: Convert text to numeric format for storage or transmission
- Protocol Implementation: Handle control characters in communication protocols
- Escape Sequences: Work with special characters in strings and regular expressions
- Debugging: Identify non-printable characters causing display issues
Data Processing and Analysis
- Text Cleaning: Remove or replace non-printable characters in datasets
- File Format Analysis: Examine binary files for ASCII text content
- Encoding Detection: Identify character encoding issues in text files
- Data Migration: Convert between different character encoding systems
Educational and Learning
- Computer Science Education: Learn about character encoding and data representation
- Programming Fundamentals: Understand how computers store and process text
- Cryptography Basics: Explore simple substitution ciphers using ASCII codes
- Digital Literacy: Understand the foundation of text representation in computers
Number System Representations
Hexadecimal (Base 16)
Uses digits 0-9 and letters A-F to represent values. Commonly used in programming for memory addresses, color codes, and compact number representation.
Example: 'A' (ASCII 65) = 0x41 in hexadecimal
Octal (Base 8)
Uses digits 0-7 to represent values. Historically used in computing systems and still found in file permissions on Unix-like systems.
Example: 'A' (ASCII 65) = 101 in octal
Binary (Base 2)
Uses only 0 and 1 to represent values. The fundamental number system used by computers for all data storage and processing.
Example: 'A' (ASCII 65) = 01000001 in binary
Decimal (Base 10)
The standard number system using digits 0-9. ASCII codes are typically referenced using decimal values for simplicity.
Example: 'A' = 65 in decimal (standard ASCII code)
Common ASCII Codes Reference
| Character | ASCII | Description | Character | ASCII | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NUL | 0 | Null character | Space | 32 | Space character |
| TAB | 9 | Horizontal tab | 0 | 48 | Digit zero |
| LF | 10 | Line feed | A | 65 | Uppercase A |
| CR | 13 | Carriage return | a | 97 | Lowercase a |
| ESC | 27 | Escape | DEL | 127 | Delete |
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Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between ASCII and Unicode?
ASCII is a 7-bit encoding standard supporting 128 characters (0-127), primarily for English text. Unicode is a much larger standard supporting over a million characters from all world languages, symbols, and emojis. ASCII is a subset of Unicode, meaning all ASCII characters have the same codes in Unicode.
Why do I see different results for extended ASCII characters?
Extended ASCII (codes 128-255) isn't standardized like basic ASCII. Different code pages (like CP-1252, ISO-8859-1, or CP-437) assign different characters to these codes. The characters you see depend on your system's default code page and the specific implementation being used.
How do I handle non-ASCII characters in my data?
For characters beyond ASCII (like accented letters, symbols, or emojis), you'll need Unicode support. Modern programming languages and systems typically use UTF-8 encoding, which can represent any Unicode character while maintaining backward compatibility with ASCII.
What are control characters used for today?
While many control characters are legacy from teletype days, several are still important: TAB (9) for indentation, LF (10) for line breaks on Unix systems, CR (13) for Windows line breaks, and ESC (27) for terminal escape sequences. Others like NULL (0) are used in programming for string termination in languages like C.
Can I use this tool for programming assignments?
Absolutely! This tool is perfect for learning character encoding, debugging text processing code, and understanding how computers represent text. It's especially useful for assignments involving character manipulation, data encoding, or when you need to understand the numeric values behind text characters.
How accurate are the binary and hex representations?
The binary, hexadecimal, and octal representations shown are mathematically accurate conversions of the ASCII decimal values. Binary values are padded to 8 bits (1 byte) for consistency, hexadecimal values use uppercase letters and are zero-padded to 2 digits, and octal values are zero-padded to 3 digits.