What is Binary or ASCII?

What is Binary or ASCII?

• An ASCII file is a binary file that stores ASCII codes. Recall that an ASCII code is a 7-bit code stored in a byte. To be more specific, there are 128 different ASCII codes, which means that only 7 bits are needed to represent an ASCII character.

• However, since the minimum workable size is 1 byte, those 7 bits are the low 7 bits of any byte. The most significant bit is 0. That means, in any ASCII file, you're wasting 1/8 of the bits. In particular, the most significant bit of each byte is not being used.

• Although ASCII files are binary files, some people treat them as different kinds of files. I like to think of ASCII files as special kinds of binary files. They're binary files where each byte is written in ASCII code.

• A full, general binary file has no such restrictions. Any of the 256 bit patterns can be used in any byte of a binary file.

• We work with binary files all the time. Executables, object files, image files, sound files, and many file formats are binary files. What makes them binary is merely the fact that each byte of a binary file can be one of 256 bit patterns. They're not restricted to the ASCII codes.