ASCII Codes

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

Something that computer programmers take for granted today, ASCII codes were developed during the early 1960s as a standard that assigns numeric values to letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and other characters.  The uppercase letter "A," for instance, is represented by the number 65, while the lowercase letter "a" is represented by the number 97.  The number "0" is represented by the number 48, while the blank space character is represented by the number 32.  The first 32 numbers are reserved for non-printable control codes such as the null character (0), audible bell (07), backspace (08), horizontal tab (09), and form feed (12).

Before the development of ASCII, communication between different computers was difficult or impossible.  Each computer manufacturer used its own digital coding scheme for representing characters.  IBM, for example, used a 6-bit character coding scheme derived from the binary coded decimal (BCD) system of Hollerith-designed punch cards, while UNIVAC used a 6-bit variant of the US Army's FIELDATA coding system.  So in May, 1961, Bob Bemer of IBM requested that ANSI, the American National Standards Institute, develop a standard coding scheme to enable diverse computers to communicate with each other.  After lengthy debate, ASCII was published in 1963, shortly before the IBM System/360 computer was released.  In the interim, the IBM 360 development team had designed an extended BCD coding system (EBCDIC), and they unfortunately didn't have enough lead time to modify the operating system and peripherals for ASCII prior to the System/360's 1964 release.  Many years later, in 1981, IBM introduced their Personal Computer that used the ASCII coding standard, and ASCII has now been widely adopted by most computer manufacturers.  Today, most personal computers and their peripherals use ASCII characters.

Below, you will find a table listing the standard ASCII codes, as used by computer programmers in the United States of America.

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ASCII Codes - ASCII Characters - ASCII Table