ASCII is the acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. In computing, a coding scheme that assigns numeric values to letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and certain other characters. By standardizing the values used for these characters, ASCII enables computers and computer programs to exchange information.
ASCII provides for 256 codes divided into two sets - Standard and extended - of 128 each. These sets represent the total possible combinations of either 7 or 8 bits, the latter being the number of bits in 1 byte. The basic, or standard, ASCII set uses 7 bits for each code, yielding 128 charcter codes from 0 to 127 (Hexadecimal 00H through 7FH). THe extended ASCII set uses 8 bits for each code, yielding an additional 128 codes numbered 128 through 255 (hexadecimal 80H through FFH).

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