ASCII control characters
ASCII control characters - quick reference
The 33 ASCII control characters occupy codes 0-31 and 127. They do not display as visible glyphs - instead, they trigger device actions. LF (code 10) advances to the next line, CR (code 13) returns the cursor to column 1, and HT (code 9) moves to the next tab stop.
The CR+LF vs LF-only split still causes bugs: Windows text files use CR+LF (\r\n), Unix/macOS use LF alone (\n). Opening a Unix file in older Windows editors shows everything on one line because it ignores bare LF. Other control characters still in active use include NUL (code 0) as C string terminators and ESC (code 27) as the lead byte for ANSI terminal color sequences. See the full list on our ASCII table.
The CR+LF vs LF-only split still causes bugs: Windows text files use CR+LF (\r\n), Unix/macOS use LF alone (\n). Opening a Unix file in older Windows editors shows everything on one line because it ignores bare LF. Other control characters still in active use include NUL (code 0) as C string terminators and ESC (code 27) as the lead byte for ANSI terminal color sequences. See the full list on our ASCII table.