Abbreviation for American Standard Code For Information Interchange.
ASCII codes represent characters. Computers require a code to display characters on the screen or to save them. The most widespread code is ASCII code. It assigns each character a three-digit number. Originally ASCII comprised 128 different codes (English alphabet, punctuation marks, control characters). Today most computers recognise 256 codes: the original 128 ASCII codes, a series of European letters, graphic symbols and scientific symbols.