ASCII Code:
ASCII, which stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard widely used in computing and telecommunications. It plays a fundamental role in representing text and control characters as numerical values. Let's delve into the key concepts and properties of ASCII code:
Character Set:
The ASCII character set comprises 128 characters, each assigned a unique numerical value ranging from 0 to 127. This includes the English alphabet in both uppercase and lowercase, numerals, punctuation marks, and various control codes.
Basic Operations with ASCII:
- Encoding: Encoding is the process of converting text characters into their corresponding ASCII codes. Each character is mapped to its ASCII value, allowing computers to store and transmit text efficiently.
- Decoding: Decoding is the reverse process, converting ASCII codes back into readable text characters. This is essential for human interpretation of data encoded in ASCII.
- Extended ASCII: In addition to the standard 7-bit ASCII, there is an extended ASCII set that includes 8-bit codes, allowing for the representation of additional characters and symbols.
Common Use Cases:
- Text Representation: ASCII code is fundamental for representing text in computer systems, enabling the storage and exchange of textual information.
- Communication Protocols: Many communication protocols, including email, use ASCII to encode and transmit text data.
- Programming: ASCII is widely used in programming languages for tasks such as character manipulation, string handling, and file input/output.
- File Formats: Several file formats, including plain text files, use ASCII encoding to store textual data.