ASCII Converter | coding.kitty

Every character a computer stores is a number. ASCII is the oldest and simplest table of those numbers: 128 characters, from 0 to 127. An ASCII converter turns text into those codes and codes back into text. A is 65, a is 97 and a space is 32.

Direction

Number base

Written in decimal, like 72 105.

Text in11 characters

Codes out11 codes

72 101 108 108 111 44 32 99 97 116 33

11 characters converted. Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded.

Type in the left box and it converts as you go. Choose Text to ASCII to get the codes, or ASCII to text to read them back, and set the Number base to write or read them in decimal, hex, octal or binary. Decode this sends the result back round the other way, so a round trip is one click. The ASCII table is below the explanation.

How text becomes ASCII codes

Take each character of the text.
Look up its code in the ASCII table. A is 65.
Write the code in the base you want: 65 is 41 in hex, 101 in octal and 01000001 in binary.
Put a space between the codes so they stay readable.

Character	Decimal	Hex	Octal	Binary
`A`	65	41	101	`01000001`
`a`	97	61	141	`01100001`
`0`	48	30	060	`00110000`
space	32	20	040	`00100000`
`~`	126	7E	176	`01111110`

Upper and lower case letters are 32 apart: A is 65 and a is 97. The digit 0 is 48, not 0, so a digit's value is its code minus 48.

Reading ASCII codes

Split the codes at the spaces or commas, read each one in its base, and look the number up. 72 105 in decimal is H and i. If the base is wrong the answer is wrong or an error: 65 is A in decimal, e in hex, and not a binary number at all. The tool reports the first code it cannot read, with its position, rather than guessing.

ASCII table

All 128 codes. The shaded rows are control characters, which are commands for a terminal or printer rather than shapes to draw. LF is the line break at the end of a line, TAB is the tab key and ESC starts the escape sequences terminals use for colours.

ASCII table, codes 0 to 127
Dec	Hex	Oct	Binary	Char	Name
0	00	000	00000000	NUL	Null
1	01	001	00000001	SOH	Start of heading
2	02	002	00000010	STX	Start of text
3	03	003	00000011	ETX	End of text
4	04	004	00000100	EOT	End of transmission
5	05	005	00000101	ENQ	Enquiry
6	06	006	00000110	ACK	Acknowledge
7	07	007	00000111	BEL	Bell
8	08	010	00001000	BS	Backspace
9	09	011	00001001	TAB	Horizontal tab
10	0A	012	00001010	LF	Line feed (newline)
11	0B	013	00001011	VT	Vertical tab
12	0C	014	00001100	FF	Form feed
13	0D	015	00001101	CR	Carriage return
14	0E	016	00001110	SO	Shift out
15	0F	017	00001111	SI	Shift in
16	10	020	00010000	DLE	Data link escape
17	11	021	00010001	DC1	Device control 1
18	12	022	00010010	DC2	Device control 2
19	13	023	00010011	DC3	Device control 3
20	14	024	00010100	DC4	Device control 4
21	15	025	00010101	NAK	Negative acknowledge
22	16	026	00010110	SYN	Synchronous idle
23	17	027	00010111	ETB	End of transmission block
24	18	030	00011000	CAN	Cancel
25	19	031	00011001	EM	End of medium
26	1A	032	00011010	SUB	Substitute
27	1B	033	00011011	ESC	Escape
28	1C	034	00011100	FS	File separator
29	1D	035	00011101	GS	Group separator
30	1E	036	00011110	RS	Record separator
31	1F	037	00011111	US	Unit separator
32	20	040	00100000	SP	Space
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	/
48	30	060	00110000	0
49	31	061	00110001	1
50	32	062	00110010	2
51	33	063	00110011	3
52	34	064	00110100	4
53	35	065	00110101	5
54	36	066	00110110	6
55	37	067	00110111	7
56	38	070	00111000	8
57	39	071	00111001	9
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	@
65	41	101	01000001	A
66	42	102	01000010	B
67	43	103	01000011	C
68	44	104	01000100	D
69	45	105	01000101	E
70	46	106	01000110	F
71	47	107	01000111	G
72	48	110	01001000	H
73	49	111	01001001	I
74	4A	112	01001010	J
75	4B	113	01001011	K
76	4C	114	01001100	L
77	4D	115	01001101	M
78	4E	116	01001110	N
79	4F	117	01001111	O
80	50	120	01010000	P
81	51	121	01010001	Q
82	52	122	01010010	R
83	53	123	01010011	S
84	54	124	01010100	T
85	55	125	01010101	U
86	56	126	01010110	V
87	57	127	01010111	W
88	58	130	01011000	X
89	59	131	01011001	Y
90	5A	132	01011010	Z
91	5B	133	01011011	[
92	5C	134	01011100	\
93	5D	135	01011101	]
94	5E	136	01011110	^
95	5F	137	01011111	_
96	60	140	01100000	`
97	61	141	01100001	a
98	62	142	01100010	b
99	63	143	01100011	c
100	64	144	01100100	d
101	65	145	01100101	e
102	66	146	01100110	f
103	67	147	01100111	g
104	68	150	01101000	h
105	69	151	01101001	i
106	6A	152	01101010	j
107	6B	153	01101011	k
108	6C	154	01101100	l
109	6D	155	01101101	m
110	6E	156	01101110	n
111	6F	157	01101111	o
112	70	160	01110000	p
113	71	161	01110001	q
114	72	162	01110010	r
115	73	163	01110011	s
116	74	164	01110100	t
117	75	165	01110101	u
118	76	166	01110110	v
119	77	167	01110111	w
120	78	170	01111000	x
121	79	171	01111001	y
122	7A	172	01111010	z
123	7B	173	01111011	{
124	7C	174	01111100	\|
125	7D	175	01111101	}
126	7E	176	01111110	~
127	7F	177	01111111	DEL	Delete

Gotchas

ASCII stops at 127. é, €, a Chinese character and an emoji have no ASCII code. The tool leaves them out and tells you which, with their Unicode code point, rather than inventing a replacement.
Extended ASCII is not ASCII. Codes 128 to 255 mean different characters in different code pages, which is why the same file can show different symbols on different computers. Nothing above 127 is converted here.
Control characters are invisible. Code 10 is a line break and code 0 is nothing you can see. They are in the table and decode like any other code.
The base matters. 41 is ) in decimal and A in hex. Pick the base your codes use before you trust the output.
ASCII is not secret. It is another way of writing the same text. Anyone can convert it back, so do not use it to hide anything.

Binary Translator, for text as UTF-8 bytes in binary, including characters beyond ASCII.
URL Encoder and Decoder, which writes the same bytes as percent-escapes in hex.
Base64 Encoder and Decoder, another way to write the same bytes as text.
Hash Generator, for the fixed-length digest of some text rather than a reversible encoding.
The Python cheat sheet for ord, chr and hex.
The JavaScript cheat sheet for charCodeAt and String.fromCharCode.

Common questions

How do I convert text to ASCII?

Type or paste the text into the left box with Text to ASCII selected. Each character is replaced by its ASCII code, a number from 0 to 127, and the codes are written with a space between them. The letter A is 65, so Hi cat becomes 72 105 32 99 97 116. Choose Decimal, Hex, Octal or Binary to write the codes in the base you need.

How do I convert ASCII codes to text?

Switch to ASCII to text, pick the base the codes are written in, and paste them. Spaces, commas and line breaks can separate the codes, in any mix, so 72, 105 and 72 105 both read as Hi. In hex an optional 0x in front of each code is fine, and in binary 0b is.

What is an ASCII code?

ASCII is a table from 1963 that gives 128 characters a number: 0 to 127. The digits, the English upper and lower case letters and the common punctuation each have a code, and so do 33 control characters such as line feed and tab. An ASCII code is that number, which can be written in decimal, hex, octal or binary. A capital A is 65, which is 41 in hex, 101 in octal and 01000001 in binary.

Where is the ASCII table?

Below the converter on this page. It lists all 128 codes, 0 to 127, in decimal, hex, octal and binary, with the character next to each one and the name of every control character, such as LF for line feed and ESC for escape.

What happens to letters like é, or an emoji?

They are not ASCII, so they have no ASCII code. Instead of swapping them for a question mark, the converter leaves them out of the codes and shows a warning that names each one with its Unicode code point, such as U+00E9 for é or U+1F431 for the cat emoji. To get the bytes for those characters, use the Binary Translator or the URL Encoder, which write UTF-8.

What is the difference between ASCII and Unicode?

Unicode is the larger table: over a million possible characters from every writing system. ASCII is the first 128 of them, with the same numbers. That is why the code for A is 65 in both. UTF-8, the encoding most of the web uses, writes those first 128 characters as the same single byte as ASCII and every other character as two to four bytes.

Why does it say my code is not ASCII?

Either a code is bigger than 127, which ASCII does not have, or it is not a number in the base you chose. A hex code with a G in it, or a binary code with a 2, is reported with its position. A decimal 200 is over the limit. Check that the base setting matches how your codes are written: 41 is a closing bracket in decimal but the letter A in hex.

Is anything I paste here sent to a server?

No. The conversion runs in your browser and neither box is submitted anywhere. The site records that the tool was used, in which direction and base, and how long the input was, so we know which tools are worth building next. The text itself is never part of that.

How text becomes ASCII codes

Reading ASCII codes

ASCII table

Gotchas

Related

Common questions

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