ARCHIVED: What is EBCDIC?

This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University. Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable.

Introduced by IBM and based on punch card standards, EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) is a family of 8-bit character sets used by many mainframe computers. Though often referred to as a single entity, there are several variant EBCDIC sets, primarily to accommodate language differences.

In Unix, you can convert between ASCII and EBCDIC with the dd command. To convert an ASCII file into EBCDIC, at the Unix prompt, enter:

  dd if=inputfile of=outputfile conv=ebcdic

To transform an EBCDIC file into ASCII, enter:

  dd if=inputfile of=outputfile conv=ascii

Replace inputfile with the file you wish to convert and outputfile with the name of the converted file. For more information on the dd command, see its man file. At the Unix prompt, enter:

  man dd

The table below contains the character mappings for the EBCDIC US-Canada set. Characters that cannot be represented in ASCII are noted by a brief description.

Dec Hex Representation
0 00 Null
1 01 Start of heading
2 02 Start of text
3 03 End of text
4 04 Control
5 05 Horizontal tabulation
6 06 Control
7 07 Delete
8 08 Control
9 09 Control
10 0a Control
11 0b Vertical tabulation
12 0c Form feed
13 0d Carriage return
14 0e Shift out
15 0f Shift in
16 10 Data link escape
17 11 Device control one
18 12 Device control two
19 13 Device control three
20 14 Control
21 15 Control
22 16 Backspace
23 17 Control
24 18 Cancel
25 19 End of medium
26 1a Control
27 1b Control
28 1c File separator
29 1d Group separator
30 1e Record separator
31 1f Unit separator
32 20 Control
33 21 Control
34 22 Control
35 23 Control
36 24 Control
37 25 Line feed
38 26 End of transmission block
39 27 Escape
40 28 Control
41 29 Control
42 2a Control
43 2b Control
44 2c Control
45 2d Enquiry
46 2e Acknowledge
47 2f Bell
48 30 Control
49 31 Control
50 32 Synchronous idle
51 33 Control
52 34 Control
53 35 Control
54 36 Control
55 37 End of transmission
56 38 Control
57 39 Control
58 3a Control
59 3b Control
60 3c Device control four
61 3d Negative acknowledge
62 3e Control
63 3f Substitute
64 40 Space
65 41 No-break space
66 42 a with circumflex
67 43 a with diaeresis
68 44 a with grave
69 45 a with acute
70 46 a with tilde
71 47 a with ring above
72 48 c with cedilla
73 49 n with tilde
74 4a Cent sign
75 4b .
76 4c <
77 4d (
78 4e +
79 4f |
80 50 &
81 51 e with acute
82 52 e with circumflex
83 53 e with diaeresis
84 54 e with grave
85 55 i with acute
86 56 i with circumflex
87 57 i with diaeresis
88 58 i with grave
89 59 Small letter sharp s
90 5a !
91 5b $
92 5c *
93 5d )
94 5e ;
95 5f Not sign
96 60 -
97 61 /
98 62 A with circumflex
99 63 A with diaeresis
100 64 A with grave
101 65 A with acute
102 66 A with tilde
103 67 A with ring above
104 68 C with cedilla
105 69 N with tilde
106 6a Broken bar
107 6b ,
108 6c %
109 6d _
110 6e >
111 6f ?
112 70 o with stroke
113 71 E with acute
114 72 E with circumflex
115 73 E with diaeresis
116 74 E with grave
117 75 I with acute
118 76 I with circumflex
119 77 I with diaeresis
120 78 I with grave
121 79 `
122 7a :
123 7b #
124 7c @
125 7d '
126 7e =
127 7f "
128 80 O with stroke
129 81 a
130 82 b
131 83 c
132 84 d
133 85 e
134 86 f
135 87 g
136 88 h
137 89 i
138 8a
Left-pointing double angle quotation mark
139 8b
Right-pointing double angle quotation mark
140 8c Small letter eth
141 8d y with acute
142 8e Small letter thorn
143 8f Plus-minus sign
144 90 Degree sign
145 91 j
146 92 k
147 93 l
148 94 m
149 95 n
150 96 o
151 97 p
152 98 q
153 99 r
154 9a Feminine ordinal indicator
155 9b Masculine ordinal indicator
156 9c Small ligature ae
157 9d Cedilla
158 9e Capital ligature AE
159 9f Currency sign
160 a0 Micro sign
161 a1 ~
162 a2 s
163 a3 t
164 a4 u
165 a5 v
166 a6 w
167 a7 x
168 a8 y
169 a9 z
170 aa Inverted exclamation mark
171 ab Inverted question mark
172 ac Capital letter eth
173 ad Y with acute
174 ae Capital letter thorn
175 af Registered sign
176 b0 ^
177 b1 Pound sign
178 b2 Yen sign
179 b3 Middle dot
180 b4 Copyright sign
181 b5 Section sign
182 b6 Pilcrow sign
183 b7 Vulgar fraction one quarter
184 b8 Vulgar fraction one half
185 b9 Vulgar fraction three quarters
186 ba [
187 bb ]
188 bc Macron
189 bd Diaeresis
190 be Acute accent
191 bf Multiplication sign
192 c0 {
193 c1 A
194 c2 B
195 c3 C
196 c4 D
197 c5 E
198 c6 F
199 c7 G
200 c8 H
201 c9 I
202 ca Soft hyphen
203 cb o with circumflex
204 cc o with diaeresis
205 cd o with grave
206 ce o with acute
207 cf o with tilde
208 d0 }
209 d1 J
210 d2 K
211 d3 L
212 d4 M
213 d5 N
214 d6 O
215 d7 P
216 d8 Q
217 d9 R
218 da Superscript one
219 db u with circumflex
220 dc u with diaeresis
221 dd u with grave
222 de u with acute
223 df y with diaeresis
224 e0 \
225 e1 Division sign
226 e2 S
227 e3 T
228 e4 U
229 e5 V
230 e6 W
231 e7 X
232 e8 Y
233 e9 Z
234 ea Superscript two
235 eb O with circumflex
236 ec O with diaeresis
237 ed O with grave
238 ee O with acute
239 ef O with tilde
240 f0 0
241 f1 1
242 f2 2
243 f3 3
244 f4 4
245 f5 5
246 f6 6
247 f7 7
248 f8 8
249 f9 9
250 fa Superscript three
251 fb U with circumflex
252 fc U with diaeresis
253 fd U with grave
254 fe U with acute
255 ff Control

This is document aeps in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2023-09-22 16:48:06.