Octal to ASCII Converter
Translate octal (base-8) numbers into ASCII text. Enter space-separated octal codes such as 110 145 154 154 157 and this tool converts each value to the matching ASCII character.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is octal notation?
Octal is a base-8 number system that uses digits 0 through 7. It was historically popular in computing because each octal digit maps neatly to exactly three binary digits, making it a convenient shorthand for binary values. Unix file permissions, for example, are commonly expressed in octal.
How do octal values map to ASCII?
Each ASCII character has a decimal value from 0 to 127. In octal, this range is 000 to 177. For example, the letter A is decimal 65, which is octal 101. The conversion works by treating each input as a base-8 number and finding the character at that position in the ASCII table.
Where is octal used in programming?
Octal notation appears in C and C++ string literals (like \101 for the letter A), Unix file permission codes (like chmod 755), and some assembly languages. Many older computing systems used octal as their primary display format before hexadecimal became dominant.