What's the difference between ASCII and Unicode?

ASCII is a 7-bit standard covering only 128 characters — English letters, digits, punctuation, and basic control codes. Unicode is a much larger standard (over 149,000 characters as of recent versions) that includes every ASCII character at the same code points, plus accented letters, symbols, emoji, and scripts from virtually every written language.

What do the control characters like LF, CR, and ESC mean?

They're non-printable codes used to control text devices rather than display a glyph. LF (10) and CR (13) together form the classic line-ending pair on Windows (\r\n), while Unix uses LF alone. TAB (9) inserts a tab stop, BEL (7) historically rang a physical bell, and ESC (27) begins terminal escape sequences for things like cursor movement and color.

Why does character 127 (DEL) behave oddly in some contexts?

DEL was designed on punch-tape systems to punch out all holes, effectively "deleting" a character by overwriting it — a physical quirk from 1960s teleprinter hardware that still shows up as the Backspace/Delete key's underlying code in many terminal emulators today.

How do I convert a whole string to ASCII codes at once?

Type or paste it into the lookup box at the top — each character up to the first 20 is shown with its decimal, hex, and binary code side by side, so you can quickly map out a short password, key, or protocol string.

ASCII TABLE

Every ASCII character with its decimal, hex, octal, and binary code, with a live lookup for any character or string.

Look up a character or string

A dec 65 · hex 41 · bin 01000001

Filter the table

Char	Dec	Hex	Oct	Bin
NUL	0	00	000	00000000
SOH	1	01	001	00000001
STX	2	02	002	00000010
ETX	3	03	003	00000011
EOT	4	04	004	00000100
ENQ	5	05	005	00000101
ACK	6	06	006	00000110
BEL	7	07	007	00000111
BS	8	08	010	00001000
TAB	9	09	011	00001001
LF	10	0A	012	00001010
VT	11	0B	013	00001011
FF	12	0C	014	00001100
CR	13	0D	015	00001101
SO	14	0E	016	00001110
SI	15	0F	017	00001111
DLE	16	10	020	00010000
DC1	17	11	021	00010001
DC2	18	12	022	00010010
DC3	19	13	023	00010011
DC4	20	14	024	00010100
NAK	21	15	025	00010101
SYN	22	16	026	00010110
ETB	23	17	027	00010111
CAN	24	18	030	00011000
EM	25	19	031	00011001
SUB	26	1A	032	00011010
ESC	27	1B	033	00011011
FS	28	1C	034	00011100
GS	29	1D	035	00011101
RS	30	1E	036	00011110
US	31	1F	037	00011111
␠ (space)	32	20	040	00100000
!	33	21	041	00100001
"	34	22	042	00100010
#	35	23	043	00100011
$	36	24	044	00100100
%	37	25	045	00100101
&	38	26	046	00100110
'	39	27	047	00100111
(	40	28	050	00101000
)	41	29	051	00101001
*	42	2A	052	00101010
+	43	2B	053	00101011
,	44	2C	054	00101100
-	45	2D	055	00101101
.	46	2E	056	00101110
/	47	2F	057	00101111
0	48	30	060	00110000
1	49	31	061	00110001
2	50	32	062	00110010
3	51	33	063	00110011
4	52	34	064	00110100
5	53	35	065	00110101
6	54	36	066	00110110
7	55	37	067	00110111
8	56	38	070	00111000
9	57	39	071	00111001
:	58	3A	072	00111010
;	59	3B	073	00111011
<	60	3C	074	00111100
=	61	3D	075	00111101
>	62	3E	076	00111110
?	63	3F	077	00111111
@	64	40	100	01000000
A	65	41	101	01000001
B	66	42	102	01000010
C	67	43	103	01000011
D	68	44	104	01000100
E	69	45	105	01000101
F	70	46	106	01000110
G	71	47	107	01000111
H	72	48	110	01001000
I	73	49	111	01001001
J	74	4A	112	01001010
K	75	4B	113	01001011
L	76	4C	114	01001100
M	77	4D	115	01001101
N	78	4E	116	01001110
O	79	4F	117	01001111
P	80	50	120	01010000
Q	81	51	121	01010001
R	82	52	122	01010010
S	83	53	123	01010011
T	84	54	124	01010100
U	85	55	125	01010101
V	86	56	126	01010110
W	87	57	127	01010111
X	88	58	130	01011000
Y	89	59	131	01011001
Z	90	5A	132	01011010
[	91	5B	133	01011011
\	92	5C	134	01011100
]	93	5D	135	01011101
^	94	5E	136	01011110
_	95	5F	137	01011111
`	96	60	140	01100000
a	97	61	141	01100001
b	98	62	142	01100010
c	99	63	143	01100011
d	100	64	144	01100100
e	101	65	145	01100101
f	102	66	146	01100110
g	103	67	147	01100111
h	104	68	150	01101000
i	105	69	151	01101001
j	106	6A	152	01101010
k	107	6B	153	01101011
l	108	6C	154	01101100
m	109	6D	155	01101101
n	110	6E	156	01101110
o	111	6F	157	01101111
p	112	70	160	01110000
q	113	71	161	01110001
r	114	72	162	01110010
s	115	73	163	01110011
t	116	74	164	01110100
u	117	75	165	01110101
v	118	76	166	01110110
w	119	77	167	01110111
x	120	78	170	01111000
y	121	79	171	01111001
z	122	7A	172	01111010
{	123	7B	173	01111011
\|	124	7C	174	01111100
}	125	7D	175	01111101
~	126	7E	176	01111110
DEL	127	7F	177	01111111

How to use the ASCII table

1
Type a character or short string into the lookup box to see its exact decimal, hex, and binary codes.
2
Or scroll the full table and use the filter box to search by decimal value, hex code, or character.
3
Control characters (0–31 and 127) show their standard abbreviation, like TAB, LF, or ESC, since they have no printable glyph.

Questions

What's the difference between ASCII and Unicode?: ASCII is a 7-bit standard covering only 128 characters — English letters, digits, punctuation, and basic control codes. Unicode is a much larger standard (over 149,000 characters as of recent versions) that includes every ASCII character at the same code points, plus accented letters, symbols, emoji, and scripts from virtually every written language.
What do the control characters like LF, CR, and ESC mean?: They're non-printable codes used to control text devices rather than display a glyph. LF (10) and CR (13) together form the classic line-ending pair on Windows (\r\n), while Unix uses LF alone. TAB (9) inserts a tab stop, BEL (7) historically rang a physical bell, and ESC (27) begins terminal escape sequences for things like cursor movement and color.
Why does character 127 (DEL) behave oddly in some contexts?: DEL was designed on punch-tape systems to punch out all holes, effectively "deleting" a character by overwriting it — a physical quirk from 1960s teleprinter hardware that still shows up as the Backspace/Delete key's underlying code in many terminal emulators today.
How do I convert a whole string to ASCII codes at once?: Type or paste it into the lookup box at the top — each character up to the first 20 is shown with its decimal, hex, and binary code side by side, so you can quickly map out a short password, key, or protocol string.