ASCII(7) Linux Programmer’s Manual ASCII(7) NAME ascii - the ASCII character set encoded in octal, decimal, and hexadecimal DESCRIPTION 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 counterpart of ASCII is known as ISO 646. 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' 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 For convenience, let us give more compact tables in hex and decimal. 2 3 4 5 6 7 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 ------------- --------------------------------- 0: 0 @ P ` p 0: ( 2 < F P Z d n x 1: ! 1 A Q a q 1: ) 3 = G Q [ e o y 2: " 2 B R b r 2: * 4 > H R \ f p z 3: # 3 C S c s 3: ! + 5 ? I S ] g q { 4: $ 4 D T d t 4: " , 6 @ J T ^ h r | 5: % 5 E U e u 5: # - 7 A K U _ i s } 6: & 6 F V f v 6: $ . 8 B L V ` j t ~ 7: ´ 7 G W g w 7: % / 9 C M W a k u DEL 8: ( 8 H X h x 8: & 0 : D N X b l v 9: ) 9 I Y i y 9: ´ 1 ; E O Y c m w A: * : J Z j z B: + ; K [ k { C: , < L \ l | D: - = M ] m } E: . > N ^ n ~ F: / ? O _ o DEL NOTES 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. SEE ALSO iso_8859-1(7), iso_8859-10(7), iso_8859-13(7), iso_8859-14(7), iso_8859-15(7), iso_8859-16(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) COLOPHON This page is part of release 3.21 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/. Linux 2009-02-12 ASCII(7)