American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), << AS kee, >> is a code that computers use to process letters, numbers, and other character data. Each character corresponds to a seven-digit binary number. The binary number system contains only 1’s and 0’s. Computers process data in binary form. Computers use ASCII and other character codes to translate binary data into characters familiar to human beings. For example, the binary number 1000011 in ASCII means C; 1110010 means r.
Standard ASCII can represent 128 characters, including upper and lower case letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and mathematical symbols. All computers use standard ASCII, which enables computers to share information. Some computers also use extended ASCII character sets for special purposes.
