What is ASCII code and why is it important for computing?

ASCII is an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a widely used standard for encoding text documents on computers. This encoding system not only lets a computer store a document as a series of numbers, but also lets it share such documents with other computers that use the ASCII system.

Why do computers use binary and ASCII?

When any key on a keyboard is pressed, it needs to be converted into a binary number so that it can be processed by the computer and the typed character can appear on the screen. A code where each number represents a character can be used to convert text into binary. One code we can use for this is called ASCII .

How does computer convert the following using ASCII code?

Computers convert text and other data into binary with an assigned ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interexchange) value. Once the ASCII value is known, that value can be converted to binary.

How do computers work with binary language?

Computers use binary – the digits 0 and 1 – to store data. The circuits in a computer’s processor are made up of billions of transistors . A transistor is a tiny switch that is activated by the electronic signals it receives. The digits 1 and 0 used in binary reflect the on and off states of a transistor.

How can we convert binary numbers to decimal numbers and decimal numbers to binary numbers?

An easy method of converting decimal to binary number equivalents is to write down the decimal number and to continually divide-by-2 (two) to give a result and a remainder of either a “1” or a “0” until the final result equals zero. So for example.

Do computers need to convert binary numbers to decimal numbers?

To actually perform any mathematics, the computer doesn’t need to ever convert the binary numbers to decimal – it can perform all its maths in binary. Decimal is just a different way of looking at binary numbers so the computer only really needs to do this when it displays the numbers on the screen for humans to read.

How docomputers convert text to binary?

Computers convert text and other data into binary by using an assigned ASCII value. Once the ASCII value is known that value can be converted into binary. In the following example, we take the word hope, and show how it is converted into binary that the computer understands.

How does decdecimal know which bytes represent which characters?

Decimal is just a different way of looking at binary numbers so the computer only really needs to do this when it displays the numbers on the screen for humans to read. The computer “knows” which bytes represent which characters because ALL the displayable letters of the alphabet are stored in lookup tables mentioned earlier.

What happens to the data when it is converted to binary?

After the h is converted into binary, the computer can store and process the data as ones (on) and zeros (off). See our hard drive page for information about computer hard drives and how information is stored on magnetic media like hard drives.