Difference between ASCII and Unicode

Encoding schemes are methods or algorithms used to represent data in a way that can be understood by computers. They convert data into a specific format that can be transmitted, stored, and interpreted by different devices and software.

There are various types of encoding schemes, each designed for a specific purpose. Here are some examples: 

• ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) 
• Unicode 
• Base64 
• UTF-8 
• Binary-coded decimal (BCD) 

These encoding schemes are essential in ensuring that data can be accurately and efficiently processed, transmitted, and stored by computers and other digital devices. 

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In this article, we will be comparing the two most popular coding schemes: Unicode and ASCII. So, let’s get started! 

We will be covering the following sections: 

• Introduction to ASCII 
• ASCII Characters 
  • Decimal-Binary-ASCII Conversion Chart 
• Introduction to Unicode 
• Unicode Characters 
• Relationship between ASCII and Unicode 
• Difference between ASCII and Unicode 

Introduction to ASCII 

The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) encoding scheme is a widely used method for representing text in computers. Its development dates back to the 1960s when it was established as a standard for encoding characters on computers and communication equipment. 

Each character in ASCII is assigned a unique code or number from 0 to 127, represented by 7 bits. These codes include letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and special characters like line breaks, tabs, and control characters. 

For instance, the letter ‘A’ is coded as 65 in ASCII, ‘a’ as 97, and ‘@’ as 64. ASCII has limitations in that it only encodes characters from the English language, and it does not support characters with accents or those from other languages. 

Despite its limitations, ASCII is still popularly used for basic text communication as it is widely supported by computer systems and simple to use. 

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ASCII Characters 

In this section, we will discuss ASCII and its usage in electronic communication. ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange and is a popular encoding scheme for computers. 

ASCII represents characters using integers, including numbers (0-9), uppercase letters (A), lowercase letters (A), and symbols such as semicolons (;) and exclamation marks (!). Integers are preferred for storage in electronic devices over alphabets or symbols since they are easy to store. For example, the integer 97 represents the letter “a,” and 33 represents “!,” which can be stored in memory without difficulty. 

If the ASCII value of one alphabet is known, it is possible to estimate the ASCII value of another alphabet. For instance, if the ASCII value of “a” is 97, then the ASCII value of “z” will be 97 + 25 = 122. 

ASCII uses 8 bits to encode any character, most of which are from the English language and used in modern-day programming. ASCII is also used in graphic arts to represent clip art or images using characters. 

One major limitation of ASCII is that it can only represent 256 different characters, as it uses only 8 bits. This means that ASCII cannot encode the many types of characters found in languages worldwide. Unicode was developed to overcome this limitation and extended to UTF-16 and UTF-32 to encode various types of characters. Therefore, the primary difference between ASCII and Unicode is the number of bits used to encode. 

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Decimal-Binary-ASCII Conversion Chart 

Decimal	Binary	ASCII
0	000000	NUL
1	000001	SOH
2	000010	STX
3	000011	ETX
4	000100	EOT
5	000101	ENQ
6	000110	ACK
7	000111	BEL
8	001000	BS
9	001001	HT
10	001010	LF
11	001011	VT
12	001100	FF
13	001101	CR
14	001110	SO
15	001111	SI
16	010000	DLE
17	010001	DC1
18	010010	DC2
19	010011	DC3
20	010100	DC4
21	010101	NAK
22	010110	SYN
23	010111	ETB
24	011000	CAN
25	011001	EM
26	011010	SUB
27	011011	ESC
28	011100	FS
29	011101	GS
30	011110	RS
31	011111	US
32	100000	Space
33	100001	!
34	100010	”
35	100011	#
36	100100	$
37	100101	%
38	100110	&
39	100111	‘
40	101000	(
41	101001	)
42	101010	*
43	101011	+
44	101100	,
45	101101	–
46	101110	.
47	101111	/
48	110000	0
49	110001	1
50	110010	2
51	110011	3
52	110100	4
53	110101	5
54	110110	6
55	110111	7
56	111000	8
57	111001	9
58	111010	:
58	111010	:
59	111011	;
60	111100	<
61	111101	=
62	111110	>
63	111111	?
64	1000000	@
65	1000001	A
66	1000010	B
67	1000011	C
68	1000100	D
69	1000101	E
70	1000110	F
71	1000111	G
72	1001000	H
73	1001001	I
74	1001010	J
75	1001011	K
76	1001100	L
77	1001101	M
78	1001110	N
79	1001111	O
80	1010000	P
81	1010001	Q
82	1010010	R
83	1010011	S
84	1010100	T
85	1010101	U
86	1010110	V
87	1010111	W
88	1011000	X
89	1011001	Y
90	1011010	Z
91	1011011	[
92	1011100	\
93	1011101	]
94	1011110	^
95	1011111	_
96	1100000	`
97	1100001	a
98	1100010	b
99	1100011	c
100	1100100	d
101	1100101	e
102	1100110	f
103	1100111	g
104	1101000	h
105	1101001	i
106	1101010	j
107	1101011	k
108	1101100	l
109	1101101	m
110	1101110	n
111	1101111	o
112	1110000	p
113	1110001	q
114	1110010	r
115	1110011	s
116	1110100	t
117	1110101	u
118	1110110	v
119	1110111	w
120	01111000	x
121	01111001	y
122	01111010	z
123	01111011	{
124	01111100	|
125	01111101	}
126	01111110	~
127	01111111	DEL

Introduction to Unicode 

Unicode is a character encoding standard that is used to represent text from many writing systems in the world. It can be thought of as a superset of ASCII, as it includes all ASCII characters and many additional characters from other scripts, such as Greek, Arabic, Chinese, and so on. The Unicode standard is designed to be comprehensive, so that it can support all of the characters needed for any writing system, as well as symbols and special characters for use in mathematics, music, and other fields. 

Unicode uses a code point system to assign a unique number to each character, which is typically represented in hexadecimal notation, rather than the decimal notation used in ASCII. For example, the Unicode code point for the letter “A” is U+0041, while the code point for the Greek letter alpha is U+03B1. Unicode characters can be encoded using several different methods, including UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32, which use different numbers of bytes to represent characters. 

One of the major advantages of Unicode is that it can support a wide range of languages and scripts, allowing users to communicate and exchange information in multiple languages without the need for different encoding systems. This has helped to make the internet and other global communication systems more accessible and inclusive for people around the world.  

Unicode Characters 

Unicode Consortium is a non-profit organization responsible for maintaining the Universal Character Set, a standard for encoding and representing characters in electronic devices.  

The IT industry relies on Unicode as a way to represent an extensive range of characters, including mathematical symbols and texts in multiple languages such as Devanagiri, Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Armenian. It is also able to represent texts written from right to left, such as Hebrew and Arabic, making it one of the only encoding schemes that can support characters from around the world. 

The Unicode Transformation Format, or UTF, is the type of Unicode encoding scheme used. UTF encoding schemes are categorized by the number of bits they use to represent characters, with UTF-7, UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32 utilizing 7, 8, 16, and 32 bits, respectively. Unicode is essential for internationalizing and localizing computer software and is used for various applications such as operating systems, XML, and Java programming.  

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Relationship between ASCII and Unicode 

ASCII and Unicode are related encoding schemes used to represent characters in electronic devices. ASCII is a subset of Unicode and represents a limited range of characters primarily used in the English language. In contrast, Unicode is a more comprehensive encoding scheme that can represent characters from multiple languages and scripts, including mathematical symbols and other specialized characters. 

ASCII uses eight bits to encode characters, allowing it to represent only 256 characters. In contrast, Unicode can represent over one million characters with its various encoding schemes that utilize different numbers of bits for character representation. 

Because Unicode can represent characters from different languages and scripts, it is a more flexible and versatile encoding scheme than ASCII. Most modern computer systems use Unicode encoding schemes, allowing for the creation and use of software and applications that support multiple languages and character sets. 

Difference between ASCII and Unicode 

Here is a comparison table of the main differences between ASCII and Unicode: 

Feature	ASCII	Unicode
Full name	American Standard Code for Information Interchange	Universal Character Set
Supported languages	Primarily English	Multiple languages and scripts
Number of characters supported	256	Over 1 million
Number of bits used for character representation	7 or 8	8, 16, 32, or more
Characters represented	Primarily letters, digits, and symbols used in English	Letters, digits, symbols, and characters used in multiple languages and scripts
Compatibility with modern systems	Limited, as it cannot represent characters from non-English languages	Widely used in modern systems, including software and applications
Use cases	Limited to representing English text in early computer systems	Used for a broad range of applications, including text processing, programming, and web development

Overall, while ASCII is a simpler encoding scheme that is limited to the representation of English text, Unicode is a more versatile and widely used encoding scheme that can represent characters from multiple languages and scripts. The Unicode standard has enabled the creation of multilingual software, allowing for greater communication and global collaboration. 

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Endnotes 

In summary, encoding schemes such as ASCII and Unicode play an essential role in the way computers process and display text. ASCII is a simple encoding scheme that can represent a limited set of characters used in English, while Unicode is a more versatile and widely used encoding scheme that can represent characters from multiple languages and scripts. As the world becomes more globalized, the use of Unicode has become increasingly important for enabling communication across different languages and cultures. Understanding the differences between these encoding schemes can be helpful for developers, software engineers, and anyone  

Hope this article was helpful for you. Explore our C++ articles to find out more about the language and consolidate your knowledge of the fundamentals.  

Author: Prerna Singh