Advertisement
Guide
About the ASCII / Unicode Lookup
Every character on a computer is stored as a number called a code point. ASCII covers the first 128 — English letters, digits, punctuation, and control characters — while Unicode extends that to more than a hundred thousand characters covering every writing system, symbol, and emoji. This tool looks up any character and shows its decimal and hex code point, HTML entity, CSS and JavaScript escapes, and the exact UTF-8 bytes it's stored as.
You can search by typing a character, entering a number, or using a U+ hex code, and you can browse the full ASCII table. It's handy for debugging encoding issues, writing escapes, and finding the right entity for a special character.
ASCII, Unicode, and UTF-8
ASCII is the original 7-bit set (0–127). Unicode assigns a code point to every character (written like U+00E9 for é). UTF-8is how those code points are actually stored as bytes — ASCII characters take one byte, and others take two to four. Seeing all three at once explains why a stray character sometimes shows up as several odd symbols: that's its multi-byte UTF-8 encoding being misread.
Escapes for every context
The same character has different escape forms depending on where you use it: an HTML entity (é), a CSS escape, or a JavaScript unicode escape (é). This lookup shows each one so you can copy the right form straight into markup, stylesheets, or code.
How to use it
- 1Type a character, a decimal number, or a U+ hex code.
- 2Read its code point, entities, escapes, and UTF-8 bytes.
- 3Browse the ASCII table to find control and punctuation characters.
- 4Copy the escape or entity form you need.
Frequently asked questions
What is a code point?
It is the number Unicode assigns to a character, usually written as U+ followed by hex digits. For example, the letter A is U+0041 and é is U+00E9.
What is the difference between Unicode and UTF-8?
Unicode assigns each character a code point; UTF-8 is a way of encoding those code points as bytes. ASCII characters use one UTF-8 byte, while others use two to four.
How do I find the HTML entity for a symbol?
Enter or paste the symbol and the tool shows its numeric HTML entity (and named entity where one exists), ready to copy into your markup.
Why does one character sometimes appear as several weird symbols?
That happens when a multi-byte UTF-8 character is read with the wrong encoding, so each byte is shown separately. The UTF-8 byte breakdown here helps you diagnose it.
Is the lookup done locally?
Yes. Everything runs in your browser with no network requests.