Character Encoding Systems

I’ve long known about so-called “extended ASCII”, where you can type many characters not on the keyboard, by holding down the ALT key and then pressing numbers on the NUM pad.

Yet I would often see different lists, some with different glyphs in different places, and with “box drawing” elements even (You could see all of this when running the charmap). Usually, you type a four digit code beginning with “0” to get the character, and HTML For Dummies had the list for this one, which is what I was using. It’s also what you type in HTML using the # & ; code.

But if you leave off the 0, you get other characters, including the box drawings.
This is actually the other set. Among those, I encountered two slightly different versions, when someone had said on a page that 233 was “Ú” (capital U with acute accent), yet I kept getting Θ (Greek capital theta).

It was hard to find info on what was what, or a page comparing all of these sets. I found out that the category is what is called the “code page“. The main three are Windows CP 1252 (the one with the four digit ALT code), DOS CP 437 (the other one I was getting without the “0”, and DOS CP 850 (this one apparently is only for Western Europe).

There’s also Unicode, which maps all the glyphs that exist to a hexadecimal code, and it’s grown to use five digits. I liked this, because it includes enclosed (bulleted) alphanumerics that I can use in subway discussion to denote route bullets. (They can be typed using the HTML code with the decimal or hex Unicode number). Only not all systems are compatible with it yet.

“Circled” numbers and “negative circled” numbers (white letter on solid circle, like the actual route bullets) were already included in the “Wingdings” font, but circled letters have been added in the Unicode 2400’s block. The “Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement” in the 1F100’s block includes the negative letters (solid bullet) letters, but these don’t even show up in any of my browsers.

Past 255, the code pages then repeat endlessly. So CP 437 #257 is ☺, just like #1, as is #513. Since CP 1252 starts with control characters, then 256-281 will be the invisible control characters, and #289 starts over with !, like #33.
Unicode for the first 256 is the same as CP1252, except for 128-159 (80-9F) which are more control characters. In CP1252, these are mostly foreign characters that are located elsewhere in Unicode.
Unicode begins its foreign and other characters with #256 (hex 100: “Ā”) and up.

So here are the three systems, with the Decimal and Hexadecimal numbers

	Hex.	CP 1252	CP 437	CP850
		ALT + 0dec	ALT + dec
0	0000	NULL
1	0001	START OF HEADING	☺
2	0002	START OF TEXT	☻
3	0003	END OF TEXT	♥
4	0004	END OF TRANSMISSION	♦
5	0005	ENQUIRY	♣
6	0006	ACKNOWLEDGE	♠
7	0007	BELL	•
8	0008	BACKSPACE	◘
9	0009	HORIZONTAL TAB	○
10	000A	LINE FEED	◙
11	000B	VERTICAL TAB	♂
12	000C	FORM FEED	♀
13	000D	CARRIAGE RETURN	♪
14	000E	SHIFT OUT	♬
15	000F	SHIFT IN	☼
16	0010	DATA LINK ESCAPE	►
17	0011	DEVICE CONTROL 1	◄
18	0012	DEVICE CONTROL 2	↕
19	0013	DEVICE CONTROL 3	‼
20	0014	DEVICE CONTROL 4	¶
21	0015	NEGATIVE ACKNOWL	§
22	0016	SYNCHRONOUS IDLE	▬
23	0017	END OF TRANSM. BLOCK	↨
24	0018	CANCEL	↑
25	0019	END OF MEDIUM	↓
26	001A	SUBSTITUTE	→
27	001B	ESCAPE	←
28	001C	FILE SEPARATOR	∟
29	001D	GROUP SEPARATOR	↔
30	001E	RECORD SEPARATOR	▲
31	001F	UNIT SEPARATOR	▼
32	0020	SPACE
33	0021	!	!	!
34	0022	“	“	“
35	0023	#	#	#
36	0024	$	$	$
37	0025	%	%	%
38	0026	&	&	&
39	0027	‘	‘	‘
40	0028	(	(	(
41	0029	)	)	)
42	002A	*	*	*
43	002B	+	+	+
44	002C	,	,	,
45	002D	–	–	–
46	002E	.	.	.
47	002F	/	/	/
48	0030	0	0	0
49	0031	1	1	1
50	0032	2	2	2
51	0033	3	3	3
52	0034	4	4	4
53	0035	5	5	5
54	0036	6	6	6
55	0037	7	7	7
56	0038	8	8	8
57	0039	9	9	9
58	003A	:	:	:
59	003B	;	;	;
60	003C	<	<	<
61	003D	=	=	=
62	003E	>	>	>
63	003F	?	?	?
64	0040	@	@	@
65	0041	A	A	A
66	0042	B	B	B
67	0043	C	C	C
68	0044	D	D	D
69	0045	E	E	E
70	0046	F	F	F
71	0047	G	G	G
72	0048	H	H	H
73	0049	I	I	I
74	004A	J	J	J
75	004B	K	K	K
76	004C	L	L	L
77	004D	M	M	M
78	004E	N	N	N
79	004F	O	O	O
80	0050	P	P	P
81	0051	Q	Q	Q
82	0052	R	R	R
83	0053	S	S	S
84	0054	T	T	T
85	0055	U	U	U
86	0056	V	V	V
87	0057	W	W	W
88	0058	X	X	X
89	0059	Y	Y	Y
90	005A	Z	Z	Z
91	005B	[	[	[
92	005C	\	\	\
93	005D	]	]	]
94	005E	^	^	^
95	005F	_	_	_
96	0060	`	`	`
97	0061	a	a	a
98	0062	b	b	b
99	0063	c	c	c
100	0064	d	d	d
101	0065	e	e	e
102	0066	f	f	f
103	0067	g	g	g
104	0068	h	h	h
105	0069	i	i	I
106	006A	j	j	j
107	006B	k	k	k
108	006C	l	l	l
109	006D	m	m	m
110	006E	n	n	n
111	006F	o	o	o
112	0070	p	p	p
113	0071	q	q	q
114	0072	r	r	r
115	0073	s	s	s
116	0074	t	t	t
117	0075	u	u	u
118	0076	v	v	v
119	0077	w	w	w
120	0078	x	x	x
121	0079	y	y	y
122	007A	z	z	z
123	007B	{	{	{
124	007C	|	|	|
125	007D	}	}	}
126	007E	~	~	~
127	007F	 DELETE	DEL or ⌂	DEL
128	0080	€	Ç	Ç
129	0081	unused	ü	ü
130	0082	‚	é	é
131	0083	ƒ	â	â
132	0084	„	ä	ä
133	0085	…	à	à
134	0086	†	å	å
135	0087	‡	ç	ç
136	0088	ˆ	ê	ê
137	0089	‰	ë	ë
138	008A	Š	è	è
139	008B	‹	ï	ï
140	008C	Œ	î	î
141	008D	unused	ì	ì
142	008E	Ž	Ä	Ä
143	008F	unused	Å	Å
144	0090	unused	É	É
145	0091	‘	æ	æ
146	0092	’	Æ	Æ
147	0093	“	ô	ô
148	0094	”	ö	ö
149	0095	•	ò	ò
150	0096	–	û	û
151	0097	—	ù	ù
152	0098	˜	ÿ	ÿ
153	0099	™	Ö	Ö
154	009A	š	Ü	Ü
155	009B	›	¢	ø
156	009C	œ	£	£
157	009D	unused	¥	Ø
158	009E	ž	₧	×
159	009F	Ÿ	ƒ	ƒ
160	00A0	NO-BREAK SP	á	á
161	00A1	¡	í	í
162	00A2	¢	ó	ó
163	00A3	£	ú	ú
164	00A4	¤	ñ	ñ
165	00A5	¥	Ñ	Ñ
166	00A6	¦	ª	ª
167	00A7	§	º	º
168	00A8	¨	¿	¿
169	00A9	©	⌐	®
170	00AA	ª	¬	¬
171	00AB	«	½	½
172	00AC	¬ NOT SIGN	¼	¼
173	00AD	SOFT HYPHEN	¡	¡
174	00AE	®	«	«
175	00AF	¯	»	»
176	00B0	°	░	░
177	00B1	±	▒	▒
178	00B2	²	▓	▓
179	00B3	³	│	│
180	00B4	´	┤	┤
181	00B5	µ	╡	Á
182	00B6	¶	╢	Â
183	00B7	·	╖	À
184	00B8	¸	╕	©
185	00B9	¹	╣	╣
186	00BA	º	║	║
187	00BB	»	╗	╗
188	00BC	¼	╝	╝
189	00BD	½	╜	¢
190	00BE	¾	╛	¥
191	00BF	¿	┐	┐
192	00CO	À	└	└
193	00C1	Á	┴	┴
194	00C2	Â	┬	┬
195	00C3	Ã	├	├
196	00C4	Ä	─	─
197	00C5	Å	┼	┼
198	00C6	Æ	╞	ã
199	00C7	Ç	╟	Ã
200	00C8	È	╚	╚
201	00C9	É	╔	╔
202	00CA	Ê	╩	╩
203	00CB	Ë	╦	╦
204	00CC	Ì	╠	╠
205	00CD	Í	═	═
206	00CE	Î	╬	╬
207	00CF	Ï	╧	¤
208	00D0	Ð	╨	ð
209	00D1	Ñ	╤	Ð
210	00D2	Ò	╥	Ê
211	00D3	Ó	╙	Ë
212	00D4	Ô	╘	È
213	00D5	Õ	╒	ı  / € (modified)
214	00D6	Ö	╓	Í
215	00D7	×	╫	Î
216	00D8	Ø	╪	Ï
217	00D9	Ù	┘	┘
218	00DA	Ú	┌	┌
219	00DB	Û	█	█
220	00DC	Ü	▄	▄
221	00DD	Ý	▌	¦
222	00DE	Þ	▐	Ì
223	00DF	ß	▀	▀
224	00E0	à	α	Ó
225	00E1	á	ß	ß
226	00E2	â	Γ	Ô
227	00E3	ã	π	Ò
228	00E4	ä	Σ	õ
229	00E5	å	σ	Õ
230	00E6	æ	µ	µ
231	00E7	ç	τ	þ
232	00E8	è	Φ	Þ
233	00E9	é	Θ	Ú
234	09EA	ê	Ω	Û
235	00EB	ë	δ	Ù
236	00EC	ì	∞	ý
237	00ED	í	φ	Ý
238	00EE	î	ε	¯
239	00EF	ï	∩	´
240	00F0	ð	≡	soft hyphen
241	00F1	ñ	±	±
242	00F2	ò	≥	‗
243	00F3	ó	≤	¾
244	00D4	ô	⌠	¶
245	00F5	õ	⌡	§
246	00F6	ö	÷	÷
247	00F7	÷	≈	¸
248	00F8	ø	°	°
249	00F9	ù	∙ (larger)	¨
250	00FA	ú	· (small)	·
251	00FB	û	√	¹
252	00FC	ü	ⁿ	³
253	00FD	ý	²	²
254	00FE	þ	■	■
255	00FF	ÿ	NBSP	No-break Space