How to Convert Text to Binary?

To convert text to binary, each character is first converted to its ASCII numeric value, then that value is converted to its 8-bit binary representation. For example: 'H' has ASCII value 72, which in binary is 01001000. The word 'Hello' becomes: 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111

What is Text (ASCII/UTF-8)?

Definition

Text is a sequence of characters that can be letters, numbers, symbols, and special characters. In computers, text is encoded using character encoding systems like ASCII or UTF-8, where each character is assigned a numeric value.

ASCII Encoding

• ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) uses 7 or 8 bits to represent 128 or 256 characters
• Each character has a unique numeric value (0-127 for standard ASCII, 0-255 for extended ASCII)
• For example: 'A' = 65, 'a' = 97, '0' = 48, space = 32

UTF-8 Encoding

UTF-8 is a variable-length encoding that can represent all Unicode characters. It's backward compatible with ASCII for the first 128 characters and is the most common encoding on the web.

What is Binary?

Definition

Binary (base-2) is a numeral system that uses only two digits: 0 and 1. It's the fundamental language of computers, where all data is ultimately stored and processed as sequences of binary digits (bits).

Common Uses

• Fundamental data representation in all digital computers
• Electronic circuit states (on/off, high/low voltage)
• Data storage and transmission
• Boolean logic and digital electronics
• Programming and computer science education

8-bit Bytes

In text encoding, each character is typically represented by 8 binary digits (1 byte), allowing for 256 possible values (2^8 = 256). This is sufficient for all ASCII characters.

Text to Binary Conversion Table

This table shows common character to binary conversions for quick reference.