What this calculator does
An ASCII converter maps each character in a piece of text to its ASCII code, the number the standard ASCII table assigns to that character. Type in a word or sentence and this tool lists the ASCII decimal code for every character, along with the matching hex value, so you can see exactly how a computer represents that text as numbers.
It also works the other way. Paste in a list of ASCII codes separated by spaces or commas and the tool decodes them back into text. This is useful for reading raw byte dumps, checking a network packet, or working out what a string of numbers in an old file format actually spells out.
The formula
Every character has a fixed position in the ASCII table, from 0 to 127. The printable characters, the ones you can actually see and type, sit in the range 32 (space) to 126 (tilde). Letters, digits and common punctuation all fall in this range: A is 65, a is 97, and 0 is 48. Codes below 32 are control characters (like tab and newline) and are not decoded by this tool, which sticks to the standard printable range for reliability.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ASCII | American Standard Code for Information Interchange, the original 128-character text encoding computers use |
| Decimal code | the ASCII value written in base 10, the everyday number system |
| Hex code | the same ASCII value written in base 16, the two-digit form used in low-level programming and file formats |
| Printable range | codes 32 to 126, the characters you can see and type, as opposed to control codes |
The inputs explained
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Direction | Choose whether you are converting text into codes, or decoding a list of codes back into text |
| Text, or codes separated by spaces/commas | For text-to-codes, type any sentence. For codes-to-text, paste ASCII numbers separated by spaces or commas, such as 72 105 33 |
When to use it
Checking how a password or username is stored
If a system stores or transmits text as raw ASCII, converting a string here shows exactly which numeric codes represent each character, useful when comparing values across systems or debugging an encoding mismatch.
Decoding a byte sequence from a file or packet
Network tools and hex editors often show raw byte values as decimal or hex numbers. Paste that list of codes in and read off the actual text, without doing the lookup by hand.
Learning how text encoding works
Converting a few familiar words shows how letters, spaces and punctuation each get their own fixed number, which is the foundation every other text encoding builds on.
Worked examples
Every figure in the tables below is produced by this page’s own calculator at build time, so the numbers and the tool always agree. Select any row to load that scenario.
What are the ASCII codes for common words?
Converting a few short words shows how each character, including the space, gets its own code.
| Text entered | ASCII codes (decimal) | ASCII codes (hex) |
|---|---|---|
| Hi | 72 105 | 48 69 |
| Cat | 67 97 116 | 43 61 74 |
| StatGarden | 83 116 97 116 71 97 114 100 101 110 | 53 74 61 74 47 61 72 64 65 6E |
| ABC 123 | 65 66 67 32 49 50 51 | 41 42 43 20 31 32 33 |
What text do these ASCII codes spell out?
Decoding a short list of codes turns the numbers straight back into readable characters.
| Codes entered | Decoded text |
|---|---|
| 72 105 | Hi |
| 67 97 116 | Cat |
| 65 66 67 | ABC |
| 83 116 97 116 | Stat |
Questions
What is the difference between ASCII and Unicode?
ASCII covers only 128 characters, enough for basic English text, digits and punctuation. Unicode extends this to cover essentially every character in every written language, and its first 128 codes match ASCII exactly, so plain English text looks identical in both.
Why does the space character have a code?
A space is a character like any other as far as a computer is concerned. It sits at code 32, right before the printable symbols and digits begin.
Can this tool handle accented letters or emoji?
No. It is scoped to the standard printable ASCII range, 32 to 126, which covers plain English letters, digits and common punctuation. Accented letters, emoji and other symbols use codes outside this range and belong to wider encodings such as Unicode.
What is ASCII hex used for?
Hex is a more compact way to write the same ASCII value, using base 16 instead of base 10. It shows up in file formats, memory dumps and low-level programming because two hex digits neatly represent one byte.
For a simpler letter-to-number mapping where A equals 1 and Z equals 26, see the alphabet to numbers calculator. To convert text to and from raw binary instead of decimal codes, see the binary to text converter.