ASCII Character Set

ASCII Characters for MPE Users

The ASCII character set defines 128 characters (0 to 127 decimal, 0 to 7F hexadecimal, and 0 to 177 octal). This character set is a subset of many other character sets with 256 characters, including the ANSI character set of MS Windows, the Roman-8 character set of HP systems, and the IBM PC Extended Character Set of DOS, and the ISO Latin-1 character set used by Web browsers. They are not the same as the EBCDIC character set used on IBM mainframes.

The Control Characters

The first 32 values are non-printing control characters, such as Return and Line feed. You generate these characters on the keyboard by holding down the Control key while you strike another key. For example, Bell is value 7, Control plus G, often shown in documents as ^G. Notice that 7 is 64 less than the value of G (71); the Control key subtracts 64 from the value of the keys that it modifies.

For the text version of the following tables, click Control Characters and Printing Characters.

Control Characters

Char	Oct	Dec	Hex	Control-Key	Control Action
NUL	0	0	0	^@	Null character
SOH	1	1	1	^A	Start of heading, = console interrupt
STX	2	2	2	^B	Start of text, maintenance mode on HP console
ETX	3	3	3	^C	End of text
EOT	4	4	4	^D	End of transmission, not the same as ETB
ENQ	5	5	5	^E	Enquiry, goes with ACK; old HP flow control
ACK	6	6	6	^F	Acknowledge, clears ENQ logon hand
BEL	7	7	7	^G	Bell, rings the bell...
BS	10	8	8	^H	Backspace, works on HP terminals/computers
HT	11	9	9	^I	Horizontal tab, move to next tab stop
LF	12	10	a	^J	Line Feed
VT	13	11	b	^K	Vertical tab
FF	14	12	c	^L	Form Feed, page eject
CR	15	13	d	^M	Carriage Return
SO	16	14	e	^N	Shift Out, alternate character set
SI	17	15	f	^O	Shift In, resume defaultn character set
DLE	20	16	10	^P	Data link escape
DC1	21	17	11	^Q	XON, with XOFF to pause listings; ":okay to send".
DC2	22	18	12	^R	Device control 2, block-mode flow control
DC3	23	19	13	^S	XOFF, with XON is TERM=18 flow control
DC4	24	20	14	^T	Device control 4
NAK	25	21	15	^U	Negative acknowledge
SYN	26	22	16	^V	Synchronous idle
ETB	27	23	17	^W	End transmission block, not the same as EOT
CAN	30	24	17	^X	Cancel line, MPE echoes !!!
EM	31	25	19	^Y	End of medium, Control-Y interrupt
SUB	32	26	1a	^Z	Substitute
ESC	33	27	1b	^[	Escape, next character is not echoed
FS	34	28	1c	^\	File separator
GS	35	29	1d	^]	Group separator
RS	36	30	1e	^^	Record separator, block-mode terminator
US	37	31	1f	^_	Unit separator

Printing Characters

Char	Octal	Dec	Hex	Description
SP	40	32	20	Space
!	41	33	21	Exclamation mark
"	42	34	22	Quotation mark (" in HTML)
#	43	35	23	Cross hatch (number sign)
$	44	36	24	Dollar sign
%	45	37	25	Percent sign
&	46	38	26	Ampersand
`	47	39	27	Closing single quote (apostrophe)
(	50	40	28	Opening parentheses
)	51	41	29	Closing parentheses
*	52	42	2a	Asterisk (star, multiply)
+	53	43	2b	Plus
,	54	44	2c	Comma
-	55	45	2d	Hyphen, dash, minus
.	56	46	2e	Period
/	57	47	2f	Slant (forward slash, divide)
0	60	48	30	Zero
1	61	49	31	One
2	62	50	32	Two
3	63	51	33	Three
4	64	52	34	Four
5	65	53	35	Five
6	66	54	36	Six
7	67	55	37	Seven
8	70	56	38	Eight
9	71	57	39	Nine
:	72	58	3a	Colon
;	73	59	3b	Semicolon
<	74	60	3c	Less than sign (< in HTML)
=	75	61	3d	Equals sign
>	76	62	3e	Greater than sign (> in HTML)
?	77	63	3f	Question mark
@	100	64	40	At-sign
A	101	65	41	Uppercase A
B	102	66	42	Uppercase B
C	103	67	43	Uppercase C
D	104	68	44	Uppercase D
E	105	69	45	Uppercase E
F	106	70	46	Uppercase F
G	107	71	47	Uppercase G
H	110	72	48	Uppercase H
I	111	73	49	Uppercase I
J	112	74	4a	Uppercase J
K	113	75	4b	Uppercase K
L	114	76	4c	Uppercase L
M	115	77	4d	Uppercase M
N	116	78	4e	Uppercase N
O	117	79	4f	Uppercase O
P	120	80	50	Uppercase P
Q	121	81	51	Uppercase Q
R	122	82	52	Uppercase R
S	123	83	53	Uppercase S
T	124	84	54	Uppercase T
U	125	85	55	Uppercase U
V	126	86	56	Uppercase V
W	127	87	57	Uppercase W
X	130	88	58	Uppercase X
Y	131	89	59	Uppercase Y
Z	132	90	5a	Uppercase Z
[	133	91	5b	Opening square bracket
\	134	92	5c	Reverse slant (Backslash)
]	135	93	5d	Closing square bracket
^	136	94	5e	Caret (Circumflex)
_	137	95	5f	Underscore
`	140	96	60	Opening single quote
a	141	97	61	Lowercase a
b	142	98	62	Lowercase b
c	143	99	63	Lowercase c
d	144	100	64	Lowercase d
e	145	101	65	Lowercase e
f	146	102	66	Lowercase f
g	147	103	67	Lowercase g
h	150	104	68	Lowercase h
i	151	105	69	Lowercase i
j	152	106	6a	Lowercase j
k	153	107	6b	Lowercase k
l	154	108	6c	Lowercase l
m	155	109	6d	Lowercase m
n	156	110	6e	Lowercase n
o	157	111	6f	Lowercase o
p	160	112	70	Lowercase p
q	161	113	71	Lowercase q
r	162	114	72	Lowercase r
s	163	115	73	Lowercase s
t	164	116	74	Lowercase t
u	165	117	75	Lowercase u
v	166	118	76	Lowercase v
w	167	119	77	Lowercase w
x	170	120	78	Lowercase x
y	171	121	79	Lowercase y
z	172	122	7a	Lowercase z
{	173	123	7b	Opening curly brace
\|	174	124	7c	Vertical line
}	175	125	7d	Cloing curly brace
~	176	126	7e	Tilde (approximate)
DEL	177	127	7f	Delete (rubout), cross-hatch box