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How can I list all the printable ASCII characters in the terminal?

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10 Answers 10

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41

You can do:

man ascii

to see the whole set of ascii characters, or you can just run the command ascii.

$ ascii Usage: ascii [-dxohv] [-t] [char-alias...] -t = one-line output -d = Decimal table -o = octal table -x = hex table -h = This help screen -v = version information Prints all aliases of an ASCII character. Args may be chars, C \-escapes, English names, ^-escapes, ASCII mnemonics, or numerics in decimal/octal/hex. Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex Dec Hex 0 00 NUL 16 10 DLE 32 20 48 30 0 64 40 @ 80 50 P 96 60 ` 112 70 p 1 01 SOH 17 11 DC1 33 21 ! 49 31 1 65 41 A 81 51 Q 97 61 a 113 71 q 2 02 STX 18 12 DC2 34 22 " 50 32 2 66 42 B 82 52 R 98 62 b 114 72 r 3 03 ETX 19 13 DC3 35 23 # 51 33 3 67 43 C 83 53 S 99 63 c 115 73 s 4 04 EOT 20 14 DC4 36 24 $ 52 34 4 68 44 D 84 54 T 100 64 d 116 74 t 5 05 ENQ 21 15 NAK 37 25 % 53 35 5 69 45 E 85 55 U 101 65 e 117 75 u 6 06 ACK 22 16 SYN 38 26 & 54 36 6 70 46 F 86 56 V 102 66 f 118 76 v 7 07 BEL 23 17 ETB 39 27 ' 55 37 7 71 47 G 87 57 W 103 67 g 119 77 w 8 08 BS 24 18 CAN 40 28 ( 56 38 8 72 48 H 88 58 X 104 68 h 120 78 x 9 09 HT 25 19 EM 41 29 ) 57 39 9 73 49 I 89 59 Y 105 69 i 121 79 y 10 0A LF 26 1A SUB 42 2A * 58 3A : 74 4A J 90 5A Z 106 6A j 122 7A z 11 0B VT 27 1B ESC 43 2B + 59 3B ; 75 4B K 91 5B [ 107 6B k 123 7B { 12 0C FF 28 1C FS 44 2C , 60 3C < 76 4C L 92 5C \ 108 6C l 124 7C | 13 0D CR 29 1D GS 45 2D - 61 3D = 77 4D M 93 5D ] 109 6D m 125 7D } 14 0E SO 30 1E RS 46 2E . 62 3E > 78 4E N 94 5E ^ 110 6E n 126 7E ~ 15 0F SI 31 1F US 47 2F / 63 3F ? 79 4F O 95 5F _ 111 6F o 127 7F DEL
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  • 1
    or just ascii. Commented Jun 17, 2011 at 9:23
  • 2
    not available in macOS Sierra, it seems Commented Apr 25, 2018 at 10:48
  • What Linux distro is this native on? Ubuntu? Commented Aug 14, 2018 at 23:08
  • 1
    command ascii not available in latest Ubuntu WSL but man ascii works fine. Commented Sep 24, 2019 at 9:48
  • 1
    On macOS you can install ascii with brew e.g. brew install ascii Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 3:10
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Try with printf and a shell like ksh93, zsh or bash:

for ((i=32;i<127;i++)) do printf "\\$(printf %03o "$i")"; done;printf "\n"

See also : BASH FAQ

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  • Or, the same idea, using a differnt way to get the octal value: for((i=32;i<=127;i++)) do printf "\\$((i/64*100+i%64/8*10+i%8))\t"; done;printf "\n" ... Commented Jun 17, 2011 at 19:34
  • Or using the bash builtin echo... for((i=32;i<=127;i++)) do eval echo -ne $\'\\$((i/64*100+i%64/8*10+i%8))\'"\\\t"; done; echo Commented Jun 17, 2011 at 20:40
13

More an awk solution that a (pure) shell one but here it is anyway:

awk 'BEGIN{for(i=32;i<127;i++)printf "%c",i; print}'
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5

The man page ascii also can be used to get a list like so:

$ man 7 ascii ASCII(7) Linux Programmer's Manual ASCII(7) NAME ascii - ASCII character set encoded in octal, decimal, and hexadecimal DESCRIPTION ASCII is the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a 7-bit code. Many 8-bit codes (such as ISO 8859-1, the Linux default character set) contain ASCII as their lower half. The international counterpart of ASCII is known as ISO 646. The following table contains the 128 ASCII characters. C program '\X' escapes are noted. Oct Dec Hex Char Oct Dec Hex Char ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 000 0 00 NUL '\0' 100 64 40 @ 001 1 01 SOH (start of heading) 101 65 41 A 002 2 02 STX (start of text) 102 66 42 B 003 3 03 ETX (end of text) 103 67 43 C 004 4 04 EOT (end of transmission) 104 68 44 D 005 5 05 ENQ (enquiry) 105 69 45 E 006 6 06 ACK (acknowledge) 106 70 46 F 007 7 07 BEL '\a' (bell) 107 71 47 G 010 8 08 BS '\b' (backspace) 110 72 48 H 011 9 09 HT '\t' (horizontal tab) 111 73 49 I 012 10 0A LF '\n' (new line) 112 74 4A J 013 11 0B VT '\v' (vertical tab) 113 75 4B K 014 12 0C FF '\f' (form feed) 114 76 4C L 015 13 0D CR '\r' (carriage ret) 115 77 4D M 016 14 0E SO (shift out) 116 78 4E N 017 15 0F SI (shift in) 117 79 4F O 020 16 10 DLE (data link escape) 120 80 50 P 021 17 11 DC1 (device control 1) 121 81 51 Q 022 18 12 DC2 (device control 2) 122 82 52 R 023 19 13 DC3 (device control 3) 123 83 53 S 024 20 14 DC4 (device control 4) 124 84 54 T 025 21 15 NAK (negative ack.) 125 85 55 U 026 22 16 SYN (synchronous idle) 126 86 56 V 027 23 17 ETB (end of trans. blk) 127 87 57 W 030 24 18 CAN (cancel) 130 88 58 X 031 25 19 EM (end of medium) 131 89 59 Y 032 26 1A SUB (substitute) 132 90 5A Z 033 27 1B ESC (escape) 133 91 5B [ 034 28 1C FS (file separator) 134 92 5C \ '\\' 035 29 1D GS (group separator) 135 93 5D ] 036 30 1E RS (record separator) 136 94 5E ^ 037 31 1F US (unit separator) 137 95 5F _ 040 32 20 SPACE 140 96 60 ` ... ...
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5

Expanding on jlliagre's solution (and useful if you don't have the ascii command available):

awk 'BEGIN {for (i = 32; i < 127; i++) printf "%3d 0x%02x %c\n", i, i, i}'

You can also pipe the above to pr -t6 -w78 to get a one page output:

 32 0x20 48 0x30 0 64 0x40 @ 80 0x50 P 96 0x60 ` 112 0x70 p 33 0x21 ! 49 0x31 1 65 0x41 A 81 0x51 Q 97 0x61 a 113 0x71 q 34 0x22 " 50 0x32 2 66 0x42 B 82 0x52 R 98 0x62 b 114 0x72 r 35 0x23 # 51 0x33 3 67 0x43 C 83 0x53 S 99 0x63 c 115 0x73 s 36 0x24 $ 52 0x34 4 68 0x44 D 84 0x54 T 100 0x64 d 116 0x74 t 37 0x25 % 53 0x35 5 69 0x45 E 85 0x55 U 101 0x65 e 117 0x75 u 38 0x26 & 54 0x36 6 70 0x46 F 86 0x56 V 102 0x66 f 118 0x76 v 39 0x27 ' 55 0x37 7 71 0x47 G 87 0x57 W 103 0x67 g 119 0x77 w 40 0x28 ( 56 0x38 8 72 0x48 H 88 0x58 X 104 0x68 h 120 0x78 x 41 0x29 ) 57 0x39 9 73 0x49 I 89 0x59 Y 105 0x69 i 121 0x79 y 42 0x2a * 58 0x3a : 74 0x4a J 90 0x5a Z 106 0x6a j 122 0x7a z 43 0x2b + 59 0x3b ; 75 0x4b K 91 0x5b [ 107 0x6b k 123 0x7b { 44 0x2c , 60 0x3c < 76 0x4c L 92 0x5c \ 108 0x6c l 124 0x7c | 45 0x2d - 61 0x3d = 77 0x4d M 93 0x5d ] 109 0x6d m 125 0x7d } 46 0x2e . 62 0x3e > 78 0x4e N 94 0x5e ^ 110 0x6e n 126 0x7e ~ 47 0x2f / 63 0x3f ? 79 0x4f O 95 0x5f _ 111 0x6f o

In my OS-independent startup script I have:

command -v ascii &> /dev/null || function ascii { awk 'BEGIN {for (i = 32; i < 127; i++) printf "%3d 0x%02x %c\n", i, i, i}' | pr -t6 -w78; }

(note the ; before the function's closing })

Special thanks to Stéphane Chazelas for the pr -t6 part.

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With zsh:

$ print -raC16 {" "..~} ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~
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Using jot(1):

$ jot -c 96 32 ! " # $ ... { | } ~

This command prints 96 integers beginning at 32, and formats each integer as an ASCII character, delimited by newlines.

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2
  • 1
    There are 95 (not 96) printable ascii characters. The last character from your command is a DEL (0x7f) character (not printable). Commented Dec 19, 2019 at 19:50
  • Probably: jot -s " " -c 95 32 would be a better solution. Commented Dec 19, 2019 at 19:51
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With zsh's brace expansion:

$ echo {\ ..\~} ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~
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  • Since the OP did not mention a shell, it's logical to assume bash (as it's the default). Do you have an answer for bash? The aforementioned solution does not work. Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 2:34
  • @ajgringo619 Unfortunately I don't know any comparable method in Bash 😥. You can try the printf or awk answers which are also pretty concise. Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 3:27
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Portably:

$ printf "$(printf \\%03o $(seq 32 126))\n" | fold -w 48 !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO PQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~

With an space:

$ printf "$(printf '\\%03o ' $(seq 32 126))\n" | fold -w 48 ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~
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0

Same as in existing answers with printf, but using brace-expansion and with hex-codes:

printf "$(printf '\\x%x' {32..126})\n"
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