The Hermit Hermit's Free Library  Codes, Symbols, & Terms

Why computers use binary numbers to represent data internally and the mechanism by which those numbers are translated into the alpha-numeric characters used by people.

Bits, Bytes, ASCII

Digital computers use binary numbers to represent and store data. Why use binary numbers? For simplicity. While the decimal system (base 10) must use ten different digits (0-9) to represent numbers, the binary system (base 2) requires only two digits (0-1).

Since we only need two digits to represent any number, it becomes quite easy to use electrical circuits which act like switches to represent 0 as "off" and 1 as "on". (This is why in the digital age many manufacturers show off and on as 0|1 on their appliances). So, computer memory chips are simply many, many (electronic) switches, each with the ability to represent either 0 or 1.

The standard unit of measurement for storage capacity on a computer is the byte. One byte is used to represent and store one character, which can be a letter, number, or other symbol. (Or, in the case of graphics, one byte represents one pixel).

One byte is composed of 8 bits. What is a bit? A bit is one binary digit: either a 1 or a 0. Why eight bits in one byte? Well, if there were only two bits in a byte, then we could only represent four distinct characters, because there are only 22 possible combinations of two digits which can only be either 0 or 1. If there were a maximum of four bits in a byte then we could represent 24 or 16 different characters. When we count the number of different characters we need to represent (A-Z, a-z, and 0-9, plus an assortment of various other symbols such as punctuation marks, etc.) it is obvious that considerably more than 4 bits (binary digits) per byte will be required. So how many bits are actually necessary?

Microcomputer designers originally decided that the capacity to represent 128 different characters would suffice. Later, engineers decided that 256 characters would be better. So, it turns out that to represent 256 different characters we need a maximum of 8 bits (28 = 256 unique combinations).

If we use different combinations of 8 bits to represent all 256 characters in computer storage, the question arises, which binary number represents which character? We get our answer from something called the ASCII table. The American Standard Code for Information Interchange, ASCII (as-key), is the standard that decrees what character is represented by what number.

ASCII characters 32-126 represent upper and lower-case English alphabetic characters, the digits 0-9, and punctuation marks.

ASCII characters 128-255 represent diatonic characters (é, ç, Ü, etc.), box-drawing characters (, , , etc.), and mathematical symbols (±, £, Ö, ¥, etc.).

Those odd looking ASCII characters from 0-31 and 127 are called the control characters. They are used as signals to control printers and other hardware devices.

Wait, I hear you say, didn't I tell you that ASCII uses binary numbers to represent characters? It does, but although computers are whizzes with 8-digit binary numbers, people are not. Therefore, for our convenience, the ASCII table shows us humans the decimal equivalents for those binary numbers. For example, "B" is represented as 1000010 inside a computer, but the ASCII table shows 66, the decimal equivalent of 1000010.

Now that you understand ASCII, here's a little trick you can do. In an application program, hold down the Alt key while you key in the ASCII decimal number for a character using the numeric key-pad. When you have finished, release the Alt key and the character corresponding to the number will appear on the screen.

A final note: when computers sort things, they do so according to the ASCII value of characters. The reason why an item with a space in front of it will appear at the top of a list is that the space character is ASCII 32, while "A" is ASCII 65.

ASCII TABLE

1        J

2        J

3        ©

4        ¨

5        §

6        ª

7       

8        _

9        m

10      _

11      _

12      _

13      _

14      _

15      R

16      Ø

17      ×

18      ô

19      _

20     

21      §

22      n

23      ­

24      ­

25      ¯

26      ®

27      ¬

28      _

29      «

30      Ù

31      Ú

32             

33      !

34      "

35      #

36      $

37      %

38      &

39      '

40      (

41      )

42      *

43      +

44      ,

45      -

46      .

47      /

48      0

49      1

50      2

51      3

52      4

53      5

54      6

55      7

56      8

57      9

58      :

59      ;

60      <

61      =

62      >

63      ?

64      @

65      A

66      B

67      C

68      D

69      E

70      F

71      G

72      H

73      I

74      J

75      K

76      L

77      M

78      N

79      O

80      P

81      Q

82      R

83      S

84      T

85      U

86      V

87      W

88      X

89      Y

90      Z

91      [

92      \

93      ]

94      ^

95      _

96      `

97      a

98      b

99      c

100    d

101    e

102    f

103    g

104    h

105    i

106    j

107    k

108    l

109    m

110    n

111    o

112    p

113    q

114    r

115    s

116    t

117    u

118    v

119    w

120    x

121    y

122    z

123    {

124    |

125    }

126    ~

127    _

128    Ç

129    ü

130    é

131    â

132    ä

133    à

134    å

135    ç

136    ê

137    ë

138    è

139    ï

140    î

141    ì

142    Ä

143    Å

144    É

145    æ

146    Æ

147    ô

148    ö

149    ò

150    û

151    ù

152    _

153    Ö

154    Ü

155    ¢

156    £

157    ¥

158    _

159    ¦

160    á

161    í

162    ó

163    ú

164    ñ

165    Ñ

166    ª

167    º

168    ¿

169    _

170    ¬

171    ½

172    ¼

173    ¡

174    «

175    »

176   

177   

178   

179   

180   

181   

182   

183   

184   

185   

186   

187   

188   

189   

190   

191   

192   

193   

194   

195   

196   

197   

198   

199   

200   

201   

202   

203   

204   

205   

206   

207   

208   

209   

210   

211   

212   

213   

214   

215   

216   

217   

218   

219   

220   

221   

222   

223   

224    a

225    ß

226    G

227    p

228    S

229    s

230    m

231    t

232    F

233    Q

244    W

235    d

236    ¥

237    f

238    e

239    Ç

240    º

241    ±

242    ³

243    £

244    ó

245    õ

246    ¸

247    »

248    °

249    ×

250    ×

251    Ö

252    _

253    ²

254    n