Teach Computer Science

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The Teach Computer Science Team

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Teach Computer Science
GSCE Computing

Character Sets

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 1.

Revision notes

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Introduction
A character or symbol that is present on the keyboard has a specific
character code that consists of numbers. A code is generated for each
character or symbol while typing on a keyboard. This code is then
converted to its character or symbol for displaying and printing
purposes.
A complete set of all the characters is called a character set. Different
languages are represented using different character sets. These
character sets are unique to meet global standards. The widely-used
character sets are explained in detail in this article.

ASCII
The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
character set is a 7-bit set of codes that can represent 128 different
characters. This consists of upper-case letters, lower-case letters,
digits, punctuation marks, special characters and control characters.
ASCII code is used for English only. The number of ASCII characters
are:

Category Number of characters

Upper-case and lower-case

52 characters
letters

numbers (0-9) 10 characters

punctuation, space and

33 characters
other symbols

non-printable control codes 32 characters

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Some ASCII codes are given below:

Character Denary Binary value Hex

value
A 065 01000001 41

DEL 127 11111111 7F

* 042 00101010 2A

4 052 00110100 34

The complete list of ASCII codes is given in the table below.

Hex Char Hex Char Hex Char Hex Char Hex Char Hex Char
20 <spa 31 1 42 B 53 S 64 d 75 u
ce>
21 ! 32 2 43 C 54 T 65 e 76 v
22 “ 33 3 44 D 55 U 66 f 77 w
23 # 34 4 45 E 56 V 67 g 78 x
24 $ 35 5 46 F 57 W 68 h 79 y
25 % 36 6 47 G 58 X 69 i 7A z
26 & 37 7 48 H 59 Y 6A j 7B {
27 ‘ 38 8 49 I 5A Z 6B k 7C |
28 ( 39 9 4A J 5B [ 6C l 7D }
29 ) 3A : 4B K 5C \ 6D m 7E ~
2A * 3B ; 4C L 5D ] 6E n 7F <del
ete>
2B + 3C < 4D M 5E ^ 6F o
2C , 3D = 4E N 5F _ 70 p
2D - 3E > 4F O 60 ` 71 q
2E . 3F ? 50 P 61 a 72 r
2F / 40 @ 51 Q 62 b 73 s
30 0 41 A 52 R 63 c 74 t

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 2.

Activities

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 Activity-1
Duration: 10 minutes

1. Hexadecimal values are used to represent web addresses or URL

(Uniform Resource Locator). The ASCII codes are used to represent
the web address. For example:
www.google.com becomes: (using the ASCII codes)

w w w . g o o g l e . c o m

%77 %77 %77 %2E %67 %6F %6F %67 %6C %65 %2E %63 %6F %6D

Similarly, use the ASCII code table given in this article to find out the
hexadecimal representation of ASCII codes for the URL:
www.facebook.com

w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m

2. What number of bits are used to represent ASCII, extended ASCII

and Unicode character sets? Complete the table below.

ASCII Extended ASCII Unicode

Number of bits

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 Activity-1
Duration: 10 minutes

1. Hexadecimal values are used to represent web addresses or URL

(Uniform Resource Locator). The ASCII codes are used to represent
the web address. For example:
www.google.com becomes: (using the ASCII codes)

w w w . g o o g l e . c o m

%77 %77 %77 %2E %67 %6F %6F %67 %6C %65 %2E %63 %6F %6D

Similarly, use the ASCII code table given in this article to find out the
hexadecimal representation of ASCII codes for the URL:
www.facebook.com

w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m

%77 %77 %77 %2E %66 %61 %63 %65 %62 %6F %6F %6B %2E %63 %6F %6D

2. What number of bits are used to represent ASCII, extended ASCII

and Unicode character sets? Complete the table below.

ASCII Extended ASCII Unicode

Number of bits 7 8 8-32

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Flashcards

What is a character A complete set of all the

characters along with their
set? codes.

How many bits

represent a 7
character in ASCII
code?

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Glossary
American Standard Code for Information
Interchange. ASCII character set is a 7-bit set
ASCII
of codes that can represent 128 different
characters.

A complete set of all the characters along

Character set
with their codes.

This code consists of an 8-bit character set

Extended ASCII and permits encoding of 256 different
characters.

Industrial standard for encoding characters.

Unicode
Allows 8-32 bits per character.

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Quiz
1. How many bits are required to represent a character’s ASCII
code?
A. 4
B. 7
C. 8
D. 32

2. How many different characters are represented in ASCII

character set?
A. 128
B. 256
C. Several billions

3. How many bits are required to represent a character’s Extended

ASCII code?
A. 4
B. 7
C. 8
D. 9

4. Which of the following character sets allow encoding of

characters used in English language only?
A. ASCII
B. Extended ASCII
C. Unicode

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 Teach Computer Science

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 Teach Computer Science

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