ASCII, acronym for “American Standard Code for Information Interchange”, was developed in the 1960’s but is still in important use today. (No matter what people say about RS-232, it’s still the appropriate protocol to use sometimes AND it’s still very reliable!)
More often than not, we need access to the ASCII tables when we’re coding our applications in C#. Therefore, the following is a handy reference that we’d like to share with fellow engineers.
The standard table has 128 characters, using 7-bits with the 8th bit as a parity check. The term “Extended ASCII Code” is somewhat unclear, as the character set depends on which encoding (ie. language) it is applying to. If unstated, it typically refers to using the ISO 8859-1 encoding (also known as ISO Latin-1). It is particularly recommended to thoroughly test when involving the use of “extended ASCII code”.
Also, since it was developed in the 60’s, a lot of the control characters are outdated (unless we bring back the typewriters!).
ASCII Table (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
| Decimal | Hex | Char | Notes |
| 0 | 00 | [NUL] | Null character |
| 1 | 01 | [SOH] | Start of Heading |
| 2 | 02 | [STX] | Start of Text |
| 3 | 03 | [ETX] | End of Text |
| 4 | 04 | [EOT] | End of Transmission |
| 5 | 05 | [ENQ] | Enquiry – a response is requested |
| 6 | 06 | [ACK] | Acknowledgement – receiver received message |
| 7 | 07 | [BEL] | Bell – ring teletypewriter bell, or part of the sound effects from Applesoft days! |
| 8 | 08 | [BS] | Backspace |
| 9 | 09 | [HT] | Horizontal Tab |
| 10 | 0A | [LF] | Line Feed – keep horizontal spacing in next line |
| 11 | 0B | [VT] | Vertical Tab |
| 12 | 0C | [FF] | Form Feed – sets the cursor to the tab of a previous line |
| 13 | 0D | [CR] | Carriage Return – removes all tabs and sets cursor to the first position in the line |
| 14 | 0E | [SO] | Shift Out |
| 15 | 0F | [SI] | Shift In |
| 16 | 10 | [DLE] | Data Line Escape |
| 17 | 11 | [DC1] | Device Control 1 (often X-On) |
| 18 | 12 | [DC2] | Device Control 2 |
| 19 | 13 | [DC3] | Device Control 3 (often X-Off) |
| 20 | 14 | [DC4] | Device Control 4 |
| 21 | 15 | [NAK] | Negative Acknowledgement – give negative response |
| 22 | 16 | [SYN] | Synchronous Idle |
| 23 | 17 | [ETB] | End of Transmit Block |
| 24 | 18 | [CAN] | Cancel |
| 25 | 19 | [EM] | End of Medium |
| 26 | 1A | [SUB] | Substitute |
| 27 | 1B | [ESC] | Escape |
| 28 | 1C | [FS] | File Separator |
| 29 | 1D | [GS] | Group Separator |
| 30 | 1E | [RS] | Record Separator |
| 31 | 1F | [US] | Unit Separator |
| 32 | 20 | [SP] | Space |
| 33 | 21 | ! | (Printable character) |
| 34 | 22 | “ | (Printable character) |
| 35 | 23 | # | (Printable character) |
| 36 | 24 | $ | (Printable character) |
| 37 | 25 | % | (Printable character) |
| 38 | 26 | & | (Printable character) |
| 39 | 27 | ‘ | (Printable character) |
| 40 | 28 | ( | (Printable character) |
| 41 | 29 | ) | (Printable character) |
| 42 | 2A | * | (Printable character) |
| 43 | 2B | + | (Printable character) |
| 44 | 2C | , | (Printable character) |
| 45 | 2D | – | (Printable character) |
| 46 | 2E | . | (Printable character) |
| 47 | 2F | / | (Printable character) |
| 48 | 30 | 0 | (Printable character) |
| 49 | 31 | 1 | (Printable character) |
| 50 | 32 | 2 | (Printable character) |
| 51 | 33 | 3 | (Printable character) |
| 52 | 34 | 4 | (Printable character) |
| 53 | 35 | 5 | (Printable character) |
| 54 | 36 | 6 | (Printable character) |
| 55 | 37 | 7 | (Printable character) |
| 56 | 38 | 8 | (Printable character) |
| 57 | 39 | 9 | (Printable character) |
| 58 | 3A | : | (Printable character) |
| 59 | 3B | ; | (Printable character) |
| 60 | 3C | < | (Printable character) |
| 61 | 3D | = | (Printable character) |
| 62 | 3E | > | (Printable character) |
| 63 | 3F | ? | (Printable character) |
| 64 | 40 | @ | (Printable character) |
| 65 | 41 | A | (Printable character) |
| 66 | 42 | B | (Printable character) |
| 67 | 43 | C | (Printable character) |
| 68 | 44 | D | (Printable character) |
| 69 | 45 | E | (Printable character) |
| 70 | 46 | F | (Printable character) |
| 71 | 47 | G | (Printable character) |
| 72 | 48 | H | (Printable character) |
| 73 | 49 | I | (Printable character) |
| 74 | 4A | J | (Printable character) |
| 75 | 4B | K | (Printable character) |
| 76 | 4C | L | (Printable character) |
| 77 | 4D | M | (Printable character) |
| 78 | 4E | N | (Printable character) |
| 79 | 4F | O | (Printable character) |
| 80 | 50 | P | (Printable character) |
| 81 | 51 | Q | (Printable character) |
| 82 | 52 | R | (Printable character) |
| 83 | 53 | S | (Printable character) |
| 84 | 54 | T | (Printable character) |
| 85 | 55 | U | (Printable character) |
| 86 | 56 | V | (Printable character) |
| 87 | 57 | W | (Printable character) |
| 88 | 58 | X | (Printable character) |
| 89 | 59 | Y | (Printable character) |
| 90 | 5A | Z | (Printable character) |
| 91 | 5B | [ | (Printable character) |
| 92 | 5C | \ | (Printable character) |
| 93 | 5D | ] | (Printable character) |
| 94 | 5E | ^ | (Printable character) |
| 95 | 5F | _ | (Printable character) |
| 96 | 60 | ` | (Printable character) |
| 97 | 61 | a | (Printable character) |
| 98 | 62 | b | (Printable character) |
| 99 | 63 | c | (Printable character) |
| 100 | 64 | d | (Printable character) |
| 101 | 65 | e | (Printable character) |
| 102 | 66 | f | (Printable character) |
| 103 | 67 | g | (Printable character) |
| 104 | 68 | h | (Printable character) |
| 105 | 69 | i | (Printable character) |
| 106 | 6A | j | (Printable character) |
| 107 | 6B | k | (Printable character) |
| 108 | 6C | l | (Printable character) |
| 109 | 6D | m | (Printable character) |
| 110 | 6E | n | (Printable character) |
| 111 | 6F | o | (Printable character) |
| 112 | 70 | p | (Printable character) |
| 113 | 71 | q | (Printable character) |
| 114 | 72 | r | (Printable character) |
| 115 | 73 | s | (Printable character) |
| 116 | 74 | t | (Printable character) |
| 117 | 75 | u | (Printable character) |
| 118 | 76 | v | (Printable character) |
| 119 | 77 | w | (Printable character) |
| 120 | 78 | x | (Printable character) |
| 121 | 79 | y | (Printable character) |
| 122 | 7A | z | (Printable character) |
| 123 | 7B | { | (Printable character) |
| 124 | 7C | | | (Printable character) |
| 125 | 7D | } | (Printable character) |
| 126 | 7E | ~ | (Printable character) |
| 127 | 7F | [DEL] | Delete |
Extended ASCII Codes (full 8-bits) for Latin Alphabets
| Decimal | Hex | Char | Notes |
| 128 | 80 | € | (Printable character) |
| 129 | 81 | | |
| 130 | 82 | ‚ | (Printable character) |
| 131 | 83 | ƒ | (Printable character) |
| 132 | 84 | „ | (Printable character) |
| 133 | 85 | … | (Printable character) |
| 134 | 86 | † | (Printable character) |
| 135 | 87 | ‡ | (Printable character) |
| 136 | 88 | ˆ | (Printable character) |
| 137 | 89 | ‰ | (Printable character) |
| 138 | 8A | Š | (Printable character) |
| 139 | 8B | ‹ | (Printable character) |
| 140 | 8C | Π| (Printable character) |
| 141 | 8D | | |
| 142 | 8E | Ž | (Printable character) |
| 143 | 8F | | |
| 144 | 90 | | |
| 145 | 91 | ‘ | (Printable character) |
| 146 | 92 | ’ | (Printable character) |
| 147 | 93 | “ | (Printable character) |
| 148 | 94 | ” | (Printable character) |
| 149 | 95 | • | (Printable character) |
| 150 | 96 | – | (Printable character) |
| 151 | 97 | — | (Printable character) |
| 152 | 98 | ˜ | (Printable character) |
| 153 | 99 | ™ | (Printable character) |
| 154 | 9A | š | (Printable character) |
| 155 | 9B | › | (Printable character) |
| 156 | 9C | œ | (Printable character) |
| 157 | 9D | | |
| 158 | 9E | ž | (Printable character) |
| 159 | 9F | Ÿ | (Printable character) |
| 160 | A0 | ||
| 161 | A1 | ¡ | (Printable character) |
| 162 | A2 | ¢ | (Printable character) |
| 163 | A3 | £ | (Printable character) |
| 164 | A4 | ¤ | (Printable character) |
| 165 | A5 | ¥ | (Printable character) |
| 166 | A6 | ¦ | (Printable character) |
| 167 | A7 | § | (Printable character) |
| 168 | A8 | ¨ | (Printable character) |
| 169 | A9 | © | (Printable character) |
| 170 | AA | ª | (Printable character) |
| 171 | AB | « | (Printable character) |
| 172 | AC | ¬ | (Printable character) |
| 173 | AD | - | (Printable character) |
| 174 | AE | ® | (Printable character) |
| 175 | AF | ¯ | (Printable character) |
| 176 | B0 | ° | (Printable character) |
| 177 | B1 | ± | (Printable character) |
| 178 | B2 | ² | (Printable character) |
| 179 | B3 | ³ | (Printable character) |
| 180 | B4 | ´ | (Printable character) |
| 181 | B5 | µ | (Printable character) |
| 182 | B6 | ¶ | (Printable character) |
| 183 | B7 | · | (Printable character) |
| 184 | B8 | ¸ | (Printable character) |
| 185 | B9 | ¹ | (Printable character) |
| 186 | BA | º | (Printable character) |
| 187 | BB | » | (Printable character) |
| 188 | BC | ¼ | (Printable character) |
| 189 | BD | ½ | (Printable character) |
| 190 | BE | ¾ | (Printable character) |
| 191 | BF | ¿ | (Printable character) |
| 192 | C0 | À | (Printable character) |
| 193 | C1 | Á | (Printable character) |
| 194 | C2 | Â | (Printable character) |
| 195 | C3 | Ã | (Printable character) |
| 196 | C4 | Ä | (Printable character) |
| 197 | C5 | Å | (Printable character) |
| 198 | C6 | Æ | (Printable character) |
| 199 | C7 | Ç | (Printable character) |
| 200 | C8 | È | (Printable character) |
| 201 | C9 | É | (Printable character) |
| 202 | CA | Ê | (Printable character) |
| 203 | CB | Ë | (Printable character) |
| 204 | CC | Ì | (Printable character) |
| 205 | CD | Í | (Printable character) |
| 206 | CE | Î | (Printable character) |
| 207 | CF | Ï | (Printable character) |
| 208 | D0 | Ð | (Printable character) |
| 209 | D1 | Ñ | (Printable character) |
| 210 | D2 | Ò | (Printable character) |
| 211 | D3 | Ó | (Printable character) |
| 212 | D4 | Ô | (Printable character) |
| 213 | D5 | Õ | (Printable character) |
| 214 | D6 | Ö | (Printable character) |
| 215 | D7 | × | (Printable character) |
| 216 | D8 | Ø | (Printable character) |
| 217 | D9 | Ù | (Printable character) |
| 218 | DA | Ú | (Printable character) |
| 219 | DB | Û | (Printable character) |
| 220 | DC | Ü | (Printable character) |
| 221 | DD | Ý | (Printable character) |
| 222 | DE | Þ | (Printable character) |
| 223 | DF | ß | (Printable character) |
| 224 | E0 | à | (Printable character) |
| 225 | E1 | á | (Printable character) |
| 226 | E2 | â | (Printable character) |
| 227 | E3 | ã | (Printable character) |
| 228 | E4 | ä | (Printable character) |
| 229 | E5 | å | (Printable character) |
| 230 | E6 | æ | (Printable character) |
| 231 | E7 | ç | (Printable character) |
| 232 | E8 | è | (Printable character) |
| 233 | E9 | é | (Printable character) |
| 234 | EA | ê | (Printable character) |
| 235 | EB | ë | (Printable character) |
| 236 | EC | ì | (Printable character) |
| 237 | ED | í | (Printable character) |
| 238 | EE | î | (Printable character) |
| 239 | EF | ï | (Printable character) |
| 240 | F0 | ð | (Printable character) |
| 241 | F1 | ñ | (Printable character) |
| 242 | F2 | ò | (Printable character) |
| 243 | F3 | ó | (Printable character) |
| 244 | F4 | ô | (Printable character) |
| 245 | F5 | õ | (Printable character) |
| 246 | F6 | ö | (Printable character) |
| 247 | F7 | ÷ | (Printable character) |
| 248 | F8 | ø | (Printable character) |
| 249 | F9 | ù | (Printable character) |
| 250 | FA | ú | (Printable character) |
| 251 | FB | û | (Printable character) |
| 252 | FC | ü | (Printable character) |
| 253 | FD | ý | (Printable character) |
| 254 | FE | þ | (Printable character) |
| 255 | FF | ÿ | (Printable character) |