ASCII Character Mappings
Background
ASCII is the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a 7-bit code. Many 8-bit codes (such as ISO 8859-1, the Linux default character set) contain ASCII as their lower half. The international counter-part of ASCII is known as ISO 646.
Encoding Tables
Octal
30 40 50 60 70 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170
----------------------------------------------------
0: ( 0 8 @ H P X ` h p x
1: ! ) 1 9 A I Q Y a i q y
2: " * 2 : B J R Z b j r z
3: # + 3 ; C K S [ c k s {
4: $ , 4 < D L T \ d l t |
5: % - 5 = E M U ] e m u }
6: & . 6 > F N V ^ f n v ~
7: / 7 ? G O W - g o w DEL
Decimal
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
8: & 0 : D N X b l v
9: 1 ; E O Y c m w
Hexadecimal
2x 3x 4x 5x 6x 7x
------------------------
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
All
The following table contains the 128 ASCII characters with all base mappings shown. Also, C program escapes (e.g. '\X') are shown.
Oct Dec Hex Char Oct Dec Hex Char
------------------------------------------------------------------------
000 0 00 NUL \0 100 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
HISTORY
An ascii manual page appeared in Version 7 of AT&T UNIX.
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.
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.
The ASCII standard was published by the United States of America Standards Institute (USASI) in 1968.