What do those funny names at the beginning of the ASCII character table mean?
The following table gives the name, character, and description of the first 32 characters in the ASCII character set, along with their decimal and hexadecimal values. Some of the descriptions are relics from the days of teletypes, and have nothing to do with how the corresponding character is typically used today.
| Name | Char | Dec | Hex | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NUL | ^@ | 00 | 00 | null |
| SOH | ^A | 01 | 01 | start of heading |
| STX | ^B | 02 | 02 | start of text |
| ETX | ^C | 03 | 03 | end of text |
| EOT | ^D | 04 | 04 | end of transmission |
| ENQ | ^E | 05 | 05 | enquiry |
| ACK | ^F | 06 | 06 | acknowledge |
| BEL | ^G | 07 | 07 | bell |
| BS | ^H | 08 | 08 | backspace |
| HT | ^I | 09 | 09 | horizontal tab |
| LF, NL | ^J | 10 | 0A | line feed, new line |
| VT | ^K | 11 | 0B | vertical tab |
| FF, NP | ^L | 12 | 0C | form feed, new page |
| CR | ^M | 13 | 0D | carriage return |
| SO | ^N | 14 | 0E | shift out |
| SI | ^O | 15 | 0F | shift in |
| DLE | ^P | 16 | 10 | data link escape |
| DC1 | ^Q | 17 | 11 | device control 1 |
| DC2 | ^R | 18 | 12 | device control 2 |
| DC3 | ^S | 19 | 13 | device control 3 |
| DC4 | ^T | 20 | 14 | device control 4 |
| NAK | ^U | 21 | 15 | negative acknowledge |
| SYN | ^V | 22 | 16 | synchronous idle |
| ETB | ^W | 23 | 17 | end of transmission block |
| CAN | ^X | 24 | 18 | cancel |
| EM | ^Y | 25 | 19 | end of medium |
| SUB | ^Z | 26 | 1A | substitute |
| ESC | ^[ | 27 | 1B | escape |
| FS | ^\ | 28 | 1C | file separator |
| GS | ^] | 29 | 1D | group separator |
| RS | ^^ | 30 | 1E | record separator |
| US | ^_ | 31 | 1F | unit separator |
Note: The "^" before a character in the "Char" column indicates the Control character.
This is document agdm in domain all.
Last modified on December 18, 2008.
Last modified on December 18, 2008.
