Teach Computer

Science

Character sets

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Lesson Objectives

Students will learn about:

▪ Different characters set such as ASCII, extended ASCII and
Unicode.
▪ Applications of each of these character sets.

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Content

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What is a character?
▪ A character or symbol that is present on the keyboard.
▪ It has a specific character code that consists of numbers.

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What happens when a

character is typed?
▪ A code is generated for each character or symbol while
typing in a keyboard.
▪ This code is then converted to its character or symbol for
displaying and printing purposes.

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Character set
▪ 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 the global
standards.

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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.
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ASCII

Category Number of characters

Upper-case and lower-

52 characters
case letters

numbers (0-9) 10 characters

Punctuation, space and

33 characters
other symbols
Non-printable control
32 characters
codes
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Some ASCII codes

Character Denary Binary Hex
value value
A 065 01000001 41

DEL 127 11111111 7F

* 042 00101010 2A

4 052 00110100 34

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 Hex Char He Char Hex Char Hex Char Hex Char Hex Char
10
Complete x
20 <space 31 1 42 B 53 S 64 d 75 u
list of >

ASCII 21
22
!
“
32
33
2
3
43
44
C
D
54
55
T
U
65
66
e
f
76
77
v
w
codes 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
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Extended ASCII
▪ Extended ASCII code consists of an 8-bit character set,
and hence 256 different characters can be encoded.
▪ Characters used in European languages can also be
represented in this coding.

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Unicode
▪ Unicode is the industrial standard for encoding characters
in most of the world’s writing system.
▪ Initially, this was a 16-bit system that permitted over 65
000 characters.
▪ The number of bits has now been extended up to 32
permitting coding of several billions of characters.

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Unicode
▪ This system uses 8 to 32 bits per character.
▪ Because of a higher number of bits per character in
Unicode, the files occupy a higher memory space too.
▪ Facebook and Google also use the Unicode system as
users communicate in different languages.
▪ The ASCII codes for the characters and symbols remained
unchanged in Unicode.

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Unicode
▪ The codes for characters from other languages were
added to the list.
▪ Unicode allocates character codes for languages all over
the world.
▪ Several code pages are used to represent Unicode.

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Unicode
▪ Microsoft word provides an
option for users to select
letters from other languages
such as Thai, Greek and
Latin.
▪ A user can also type the
specific character in a
document.
▪ For example: to enter the
character “฿”, its unicode
(OE3F) is typed and then, teachcomputerscience.co
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concepts

Character ASCII Extended ASCII

A character or symbol that is The ASCII (American Extended ASCII code consists
present on the keyboard has a Standard Code for of 8-bit character set, and
specific character code that Information Interchange) hence 256 different characters
consists of numbers. character set is a 7-bit set can be encoded.
of codes that can represent
128 different characters
Character set Unicode
A complete set of all the Unicode is the industrial
characters is called a standard for encoding
character set. characters in most of the
world’s writing system. This
system uses 8 to 32 bits per
character.

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Activity

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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
%7 %7 %7 %2 %6 %6 %6 %6 %6 %6 %2 %6 %6 %6
7 7 7 E 7 F F 7 C 5 E 3 F D

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
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Activity-1
Duration: 10 minutes

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

and Unicode character sets? Complete the table below.

Extended
ASCII Unicode
ASCII

Number of
bits

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End of topic questions

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End of topic questions

1. What are the different character sets available?
2. What are the advantages of extended ASCII character set over
ASCII character set?
3. Why is Unicode adapted as the international standard for
character coding?
4. A sorting algorithm sorts the words: “Right, left, Zebra, apple”
using the hexadecimal numerical value of ASCII character set. In
what order are these words sorted?
5. How are the ASCII character codes adapted to the Unicode
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