1. Representation of Characters
GCSE COMPUTING
Representation of Characters
Version: 1.1

2. Binary, binary, binary
As you know all data in a binary computer must be represented as a binary number, so characters from the alphabet, punctuation symbols etc must be represented as a number. The numbers are formed into code tables where for example lower case a might have the binary value (61 in decimal), lower case b might have the binary value (62 in decimal), etc

3. The ASCII Code Table An extract from the ASCII code table
Uses 8 bit binary values to represent character
Downside:
Only caters for 256 different characters, which means this code table can’t be used by every language
DEC
HEX
BIN
Symbol 61 3D = 62 3E
> 63 3F ? 64 40 @ 65 41 A 66 42 B 67 43 C 68 44 D 69 45 E 70 46 F 71 47 G 72 48 H 73 49 I 74 4A J 75 4B K
Have a look at

4. Unicode Code Table An extract from the Unicode code table
Unicode code point
character
UTF-8 (dec.)
name
U+003A : 58
COLON
U+003B ; 59
SEMICOLON
U+003C
< 60
LESS-THAN SIGN
U+003D = 61
EQUALS SIGN
U+003E
> 62
GREATER-THAN SIGN
U+003F ? 63
QUESTION MARK
U+0040 @ 64
COMMERCIAL AT
U+0041 A 65
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A
U+0042 B 66
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B
U+0043 C 67
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C
U+0044 D 68
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D
U+0045 E 69
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E
Covers more than more than 109,000 characters which means it can cater for a vast range of languages