How to Type Extended ASCII Characters

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Introduction

There are extended ASCII characters that are particularly useful when trying to make a textual user-interface (TUI). For example, when trying to make boxes and separators, like with the character (ASCII 180).

You can find a full list of characters at: https://theasciicode.com.ar/

Type extended ASCII characters

Since the extended ASCII contains some odd characters, there is not always a corresponding key on a keyboard. To type characters that are not on the keyboard requires a special technique. Here are a few options:

In most editors

ASCII table for reference:

In some editors you can press hold the ALT key and then press the ASCII numeric value on your keypad. It will not work with the regular numbers on the top of your alphabet, it needs to be the right keypad.

Example:

ALT+180 # Hold alt, then press 1, 8, 0, then release alt

If that method doesn't work, see the other options below.

In Vim

In vim type :digraph or :help digraph. To insert a digraph press CTRL-V in insert mode, then enter the digraph number using the numbers above your alphabet keys. In vim it does not work with the right keypad numbers.

Using character map

In Windows 10, run the Character Map, charmap.exe. You can find the characters you are looking for, double click then, and they show up in the text field in the bottom. From there you can copy/paste the characters you need.

Similar character maps exist for other systems like Mac OSX and Gnome, KDE.

References

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