ascii.md

ASCII vs UTF-8

ASCII:

• Range: ASCII uses 7 bits per character, which gives it a character set of 128 symbols (0–127). These include English letters (both uppercase and lowercase), digits, punctuation marks, and control characters.
• Usage: ASCII is primarily used for encoding English text and simple characters.
• Limitations: It only supports a limited set of characters, mainly for English. Non-English characters and symbols, such as accented letters or characters from other languages, cannot be represented in ASCII.

UTF-8:

• Range: UTF-8 is a variable-width character encoding. It can represent every character in the Unicode standard (which includes over 143,000 characters from various languages, symbols, and emojis) and uses 1 to 4 bytes per character.
  • For characters in the ASCII range (0–127), UTF-8 uses the same 1 byte as ASCII.
  • For characters beyond the ASCII range, UTF-8 uses 2, 3, or 4 bytes.
• Usage: UTF-8 is widely used on the web and in modern applications because it supports a much broader range of characters and is backward compatible with ASCII.
• Advantages:
  • It supports all characters and symbols, including non-English characters, emojis, and various scripts.
  • It is more flexible and future-proof because it can represent any Unicode character.
  • It's backward compatible with ASCII, so any ASCII text is also valid UTF-8 text.

Summary:

• ASCII is simpler and more limited, designed for English and basic control characters.
• UTF-8 is more versatile and can handle virtually all characters from different languages, including symbols and emojis, while being compatible with ASCII for the first 128 characters.

ASCII Characters

Decimal	Binary	Hex	Hex	Hex	ASCII	Name	Description
0	00000000	00	00h	0x00	NUL	Null	Used as sign of end of a string or to fill an unallocated data space
1	00000001	01	01h	0x01	SOH	Start of Heading	Defines the beginning of the message header block
2	00000010	02	02h	0x02	STX	Start of Text	Specifies the beginning of the text block and terminates the header block
3	00000011	03	03h	0x03	ETX	End of Text	Often used as a “break” character (Ctrl C) to terminate a program
4	00000100	04	04h	0x04	EOT	End of Transmission	Control character that indicates end-of-file on a terminal
5	00000101	05	05h	0x05	ENQ	Enquiry	Transmission-control character that requests a response from the receiving end
6	00000110	06	06h	0x06	ACK	Acknowledgement	Response to an ENQ, or an indication of successful receipt of a message
7	00000111	07	07h	0x07	BEL	Bell	Device control code informs the system that it should beep
8	00001000	08	08h	0x08	BS	Backspace	Moves the cursor one position leftwards and removes its character
9	00001001	09	09h	0x09	HT	Horizontal Tab	Moves the cursor to the next tab stop (e.g., by pressing the Tab key)
10	00001010	0A	0Ah	0x0A	LF	Line Feed	It is used to indicate the end of a line (e.g., by pressing the Enter key on UNIX)
11	00001011	0B	0Bh	0x0B	VT	Vertical Tab	Place the form at the next line tab stop
12	00001100	0C	0Ch	0x0C	FF	Form Feed	Page-breaking character indicates that the following content is part of a new page
13	00001101	0D	0Dh	0x0D	CR	Carriage Return	It is used to indicate the end of a line (e.g., by pressing the Enter key on MacOS)
14	00001110	0E	0Eh	0x0E	SO	Shift Out	Known as Control-N, it switches to an alternate character set
15	00001111	0F	0Fh	0x0F	SI	Shift In	Known as Control-O, it returns the regular character set after Shift Out
16	00010000	10	10h	0x10	DLE	Data Link Escape	Force the following octets to be interpreted as raw data
17	00010001	11	11h	0x11	DC1	Device Control 1	Known as XON, it resumes or turns on the device
18	00010010	12	12h	0x12	DC2	Device Control 2	The same as DC1
19	00010011	13	13h	0x13	DC3	Device Control 3	Known as XOFF, it pauses or turns off the device
20	00010100	14	14h	0x14	DC4	Device Control 4	The same as DC3
21	00010101	15	15h	0x15	NAK	Negative Acknowledgement	Reply to the ENQ message informing the sender of an occurred error
22	00010110	16	16h	0x16	SYN	Synchronous Idle	Used in hardware synchronization procedures
23	00010111	17	17h	0x17	ETB	End of Transmission Block	It is used when transferring data by blocks and serves as a separator
24	00011000	18	18h	0x18	CAN	Cancel	Tells the device to ignore the data that was sent before this character
25	00011001	19	19h	0x19	EM	End of Medium	Used to notify that the paper or magnetic tape reached the end
26	00011010	1A	1Ah	0x1A	SUB	Substitute	May be used to replace a character or to undo the last action
27	00011011	1B	1Bh	0x1B	ESC	Escape	Usually it is associated with the Esc key (for example, to close a popup)
28	00011100	1C	1Ch	0x1C	FS	File Separator	It is used as a sign of dividing the data stream into files
29	00011101	1D	1Dh	0x1D	GS	Group Separator	It is used as a sign of dividing the data stream into groups
30	00011110	1E	1Eh	0x1E	RS	Record Separator	It is a record separator in the data stream
31	00011111	1F	1Fh	0x1F	US	Unit Separator	It is intended for separating elements in the data stream
32	00100000	20	20h	0x20		Space	Blank area that separates characters (can be written by pressing the Space key)
33	00100001	21	21h	0x21	!	Exclamation mark	Shift 1
34	00100010	22	22h	0x22	"	Quotation mark	Shift '
35	00100011	23	23h	0x23	#	Number sign	Shift 3
36	00100100	24	24h	0x24	$	Dollar sign	Shift 4
37	00100101	25	25h	0x25	%	Percent sign	Shift 5
38	00100110	26	26h	0x26	&	Ampersand	Shift 7
39	00100111	27	27h	0x27	'	Apostrophe
40	00101000	28	28h	0x28	(	Left parenthesis	Shift 9
41	00101001	29	29h	0x29	)	Right parenthesis	Shift 10
42	00101010	2A	2Ah	0x2A	*	Asterisk	Shift 8
43	00101011	2B	2Bh	0x2B	+	Plus sign	Shift =
44	00101100	2C	2Ch	0x2C	,	Comma
45	00101101	2D	2Dh	0x2D	-	Hyphen-minus
46	00101110	2E	2Eh	0x2E	.	Full stop (dot)
47	00101111	2F	2Fh	0x2F	/	Slash
48	00110000	30	30h	0x30	0	Zero
49	00110001	31	31h	0x31	1	One
50	00110010	32	32h	0x32	2	Two
51	00110011	33	33h	0x33	3	Three
52	00110100	34	34h	0x34	4	Four
53	00110101	35	35h	0x35	5	Five
54	00110110	36	36h	0x36	6	Six
55	00110111	37	37h	0x37	7	Seven
56	00111000	38	38h	0x38	8	Eight
57	00111001	39	39h	0x39	9	Nine
58	00111010	3A	3Ah	0x3A	:	Colon	Shift ;
59	00111011	3B	3Bh	0x3B	;	Semicolon
60	00111100	3C	3Ch	0x3C	<	Less-than sign	Shift ,
61	00111101	3D	3Dh	0x3D	=	Equals sign
62	00111110	3E	3Eh	0x3E	>	Greater-than sign	Shift .
63	00111111	3F	3Fh	0x3F	?	Question mark	Shift /
64	01000000	40	40h	0x40	@	At sign	Shift 2
65	01000001	41	41h	0x41	A	Uppercase “A”
66	01000010	42	42h	0x42	B	Uppercase “B”
67	01000011	43	43h	0x43	C	Uppercase “C”
68	01000100	44	44h	0x44	D	Uppercase “D”
69	01000101	45	45h	0x45	E	Uppercase “E”
70	01000110	46	46h	0x46	F	Uppercase “F”
71	01000111	47	47h	0x47	G	Uppercase “G”
72	01001000	48	48h	0x48	H	Uppercase “H”
73	01001001	49	49h	0x49	I	Uppercase “I”
74	01001010	4A	4Ah	0x4A	J	Uppercase “J”
75	01001011	4B	4Bh	0x4B	K	Uppercase “K”
76	01001100	4C	4Ch	0x4C	L	Uppercase “L”
77	01001101	4D	4Dh	0x4D	M	Uppercase “M”
78	01001110	4E	4Eh	0x4E	N	Uppercase “N”
79	01001111	4F	4Fh	0x4F	O	Uppercase “O”
80	01010000	50	50h	0x50	P	Uppercase “P”
81	01010001	51	51h	0x51	Q	Uppercase “Q”
82	01010010	52	52h	0x52	R	Uppercase “R”
83	01010011	53	53h	0x53	S	Uppercase “S”
84	01010100	54	54h	0x54	T	Uppercase “T”
85	01010101	55	55h	0x55	U	Uppercase “U”
86	01010110	56	56h	0x56	V	Uppercase “V”
87	01010111	57	57h	0x57	W	Uppercase “W”
88	01011000	58	58h	0x58	X	Uppercase “X”
89	01011001	59	59h	0x59	Y	Uppercase “Y”
90	01011010	5A	5Ah	0x5A	Z	Uppercase “Z”
91	01011011	5B	5Bh	0x5B	[	Left square bracket
92	01011100	5C	5Ch	0x5C	|Backslash
93	01011101	5D	5Dh	0x5D	]	Right square bracket
94	01011110	5E	5Eh	0x5E	^	Caret	Shift 6
95	01011111	5F	5Fh	0x5F	_	Underscore	Shift -
96	01100000	60	60h	0x60	`	Grave accent
97	01100001	61	61h	0x61	a	Lowercase “a”
98	01100010	62	62h	0x62	b	Lowercase “b”
99	01100011	63	63h	0x63	c	Lowercase “c”
100	01100100	64	64h	0x64	d	Lowercase “d”
101	01100101	65	65h	0x65	e	Lowercase “e”
102	01100110	66	66h	0x66	f	Lowercase “f”
103	01100111	67	67h	0x67	g	Lowercase “g”
104	01101000	68	68h	0x68	h	Lowercase “h”
105	01101001	69	69h	0x69	i	Lowercase “i”
106	01101010	6A	6Ah	0x6A	j	Lowercase “j”
107	01101011	6B	6Bh	0x6B	k	Lowercase “k”
108	01101100	6C	6Ch	0x6C	l	Lowercase “l”
109	01101101	6D	6Dh	0x6D	m	Lowercase “m”
110	01101110	6E	6Eh	0x6E	n	Lowercase “n”
111	01101111	6F	6Fh	0x6F	o	Lowercase “o”
112	01110000	70	70h	0x70	p	Lowercase “p”
113	01110001	71	71h	0x71	q	Lowercase “q”
114	01110010	72	72h	0x72	r	Lowercase “r”
115	01110011	73	73h	0x73	s	Lowercase “s”
116	01110100	74	74h	0x74	t	Lowercase “t”
117	01110101	75	75h	0x75	u	Lowercase “u”
118	01110110	76	76h	0x76	v	Lowercase “v”
119	01110111	77	77h	0x77	w	Lowercase “w”
120	01111000	78	78h	0x78	x	Lowercase “x”
121	01111001	79	79h	0x79	y	Lowercase “y”
122	01111010	7A	7Ah	0x7A	z	Lowercase “z”
123	01111011	7B	7Bh	0x7B	{	Left curly bracket	Shift [
124	01111100	7C	7Ch	0x7C	|	Vertical bar	Shift |
125	01111101	7D	7Dh	0x7D	}	Right curly bracket	Shift ]
126	01111110	7E	7Eh	0x7E	~	Tilde	Shift `
127	01111111	7F	7Fh	0x7F	DEL	Delete	Marks deleted symbols on paper tape
128	10000000	80	80h	0x80	€
129	10000001	81	81h	0x81	�
130	10000010	82	82h	0x82	‚
131	10000011	83	83h	0x83	ƒ
132	10000100	84	84h	0x84	„
133	10000101	85	85h	0x85	…
134	10000110	86	86h	0x86	†
135	10000111	87	87h	0x87	‡
136	10001000	88	88h	0x88	ˆ
137	10001001	89	89h	0x89	‰
138	10001010	8A	8Ah	0x8A	Š
139	10001011	8B	8Bh	0x8B	‹
140	10001100	8C	8Ch	0x8C	Œ
141	10001101	8D	8Dh	0x8D	�
142	10001110	8E	8Eh	0x8E	Ž
143	10001111	8F	8Fh	0x8F	�
144	10010000	90	90h	0x90	�
145	10010001	91	91h	0x91	‘
146	10010010	92	92h	0x92	’
147	10010011	93	93h	0x93	“
148	10010100	94	94h	0x94	”
149	10010101	95	95h	0x95	•
150	10010110	96	96h	0x96	–
151	10010111	97	97h	0x97	—
152	10011000	98	98h	0x98	˜
153	10011001	99	99h	0x99	™
154	10011010	9A	9Ah	0x9A	š
155	10011011	9B	9Bh	0x9B	›
156	10011100	9C	9Ch	0x9C	œ
157	10011101	9D	9Dh	0x9D	�
158	10011110	9E	9Eh	0x9E	ž
159	10011111	9F	9Fh	0x9F	Ÿ
160	10100000	A0	A0h	0xA0
161	10100001	A1	A1h	0xA1	¡
162	10100010	A2	A2h	0xA2	¢
163	10100011	A3	A3h	0xA3	£
164	10100100	A4	A4h	0xA4	¤
165	10100101	A5	A5h	0xA5	¥
166	10100110	A6	A6h	0xA6	¦
167	10100111	A7	A7h	0xA7	§
168	10101000	A8	A8h	0xA8	¨
169	10101001	A9	A9h	0xA9	©
170	10101010	AA	AAh	0xAA	ª
171	10101011	AB	ABh	0xAB	«
172	10101100	AC	ACh	0xAC	¬
173	10101101	AD	ADh	0xAD	­
174	10101110	AE	AEh	0xAE	®
175	10101111	AF	AFh	0xAF	¯
176	10110000	B0	B0h	0xB0	°
177	10110001	B1	B1h	0xB1	±
178	10110010	B2	B2h	0xB2	²
179	10110011	B3	B3h	0xB3	³
180	10110100	B4	B4h	0xB4	´
181	10110101	B5	B5h	0xB5	µ
182	10110110	B6	B6h	0xB6	¶
183	10110111	B7	B7h	0xB7	·
184	10111000	B8	B8h	0xB8	¸
185	10111001	B9	B9h	0xB9	¹
186	10111010	BA	BAh	0xBA	º
187	10111011	BB	BBh	0xBB	»
188	10111100	BC	BCh	0xBC	¼
189	10111101	BD	BDh	0xBD	½
190	10111110	BE	BEh	0xBE	¾
191	10111111	BF	BFh	0xBF	¿
192	11000000	C0	C0h	0xC0	À
193	11000001	C1	C1h	0xC1	Á
194	11000010	C2	C2h	0xC2	Â
195	11000011	C3	C3h	0xC3	Ã
196	11000100	C4	C4h	0xC4	Ä
197	11000101	C5	C5h	0xC5	Å
198	11000110	C6	C6h	0xC6	Æ
199	11000111	C7	C7h	0xC7	Ç
200	11001000	C8	C8h	0xC8	È
201	11001001	C9	C9h	0xC9	É
202	11001010	CA	CAh	0xCA	Ê
203	11001011	CB	CBh	0xCB	Ë
204	11001100	CC	CCh	0xCC	Ì
205	11001101	CD	CDh	0xCD	Í
206	11001110	CE	CEh	0xCE	Î
207	11001111	CF	CFh	0xCF	Ï
208	11010000	D0	D0h	0xD0	Ð
209	11010001	D1	D1h	0xD1	Ñ
210	11010010	D2	D2h	0xD2	Ò
211	11010011	D3	D3h	0xD3	Ó
212	11010100	D4	D4h	0xD4	Ô
213	11010101	D5	D5h	0xD5	Õ
214	11010110	D6	D6h	0xD6	Ö
215	11010111	D7	D7h	0xD7	×
216	11011000	D8	D8h	0xD8	Ø
217	11011001	D9	D9h	0xD9	Ù
218	11011010	DA	DAh	0xDA	Ú
219	11011011	DB	DBh	0xDB	Û
220	11011100	DC	DCh	0xDC	Ü
221	11011101	DD	DDh	0xDD	Ý
222	11011110	DE	DEh	0xDE	Þ
223	11011111	DF	DFh	0xDF	ß
224	11100000	E0	E0h	0xE0	à
225	11100001	E1	E1h	0xE1	á
226	11100010	E2	E2h	0xE2	â
227	11100011	E3	E3h	0xE3	ã
228	11100100	E4	E4h	0xE4	ä
229	11100101	E5	E5h	0xE5	å
230	11100110	E6	E6h	0xE6	æ
231	11100111	E7	E7h	0xE7	ç
232	11101000	E8	E8h	0xE8	è
233	11101001	E9	E9h	0xE9	é
234	11101010	EA	EAh	0xEA	ê
235	11101011	EB	EBh	0xEB	ë
236	11101100	EC	ECh	0xEC	ì
237	11101101	ED	EDh	0xED	í
238	11101110	EE	EEh	0xEE	î
239	11101111	EF	EFh	0xEF	ï
240	11110000	F0	F0h	0xF0	ð
241	11110001	F1	F1h	0xF1	ñ
242	11110010	F2	F2h	0xF2	ò
243	11110011	F3	F3h	0xF3	ó
244	11110100	F4	F4h	0xF4	ô
245	11110101	F5	F5h	0xF5	õ
246	11110110	F6	F6h	0xF6	ö
247	11110111	F7	F7h	0xF7	÷
248	11111000	F8	F8h	0xF8	ø
249	11111001	F9	F9h	0xF9	ù
250	11111010	FA	FAh	0xFA	ú
251	11111011	FB	FBh	0xFB	û
252	11111100	FC	FCh	0xFC	ü
253	11111101	FD	FDh	0xFD	ý
254	11111110	FE	FEh	0xFE	þ
255	11111111	FF	FFh	0xFF	ÿ