Data Formats Part 1 ASCII

What is a Data Format?

A set of rules that defines how information is structured, stored, and exchanged.

What are the Data Formats?

-American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)

-Unicode

-Comma-separated Values (CSV)

-Fixed width

-JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)

-Extensible Markup Language (XML)

What is ASCII?

A standard numerical code that assigns a unique number (0-127) to letters, digits, and symbols, allowing computers to store and exchange text as binary data.

What is the 128-character limit for ASCII?

Standard ASCII is a 7-bit code. Because computers use binary (0s and 1s), having 7 bits allows for 2^7 = 128 unique combinations.

What are the ASCII control codes?

(0-31 and 127)

These are the "invisible" commands for the computer, like Backspace or Enter.

What are the ASCII printable characters?

(32-126)

These are the things you actually see, like A, !, and 7.

What is the very first printable character?

The space bar (32) is the very first printable character.

Why is ASCII built for speed and logic?

Easy case swapping

Sorted numbers

What is Easy Case Swapping?

The difference between "A" (65) and "a" (97) is exactly 32. In binary, this is just a single bit being flipped, making it instant for a computer to switch between upper and lowercase.

What are Sorted Numbers in ASCII?

The digits 0-9 are listed in order (48-57), which makes it very easy for a computer to sort data numerically.

What is extended ASCII?

It uses 8 bits, doubling the capacity to 256 characters.

The first 128 stay exactly the same (Standard ASCII).

The new 128 slots (128-255) are used for things like £, ©, or +.

Why is ASCII universally compatible?

The first "128" rule

Backward compatibility

What is the first "128" rule?

When Unicode (UTF-8) was developed to include every language and emoji, the designers made sure the first 128 characters were identical to ASCII.

What is Backward Compatibility?

This means any file written in "Plain Text" (ASCII) 50 years ago is still perfectly readable by a modern web browser or text editor today.

What are the uses of ASCII?

1. Behind-the-Scenes Internet

2. Writing Computer Code

3. Simple Hardware

4. Basic Data Files

5. ASCII Art

What are the advantages of ASCII?

- ASCII can be used to represent most European languages.

- It is simple, human-readable, and has broad support across different systems.

What are the disadvantages of ASCII?

- ASCII is limited to 256 characters as there are 256 possible combinations of eight 0s and 1s.

- ASCII is not able to represent enough characters to be usable for all written languages, as some languages require thousands of characters.