keyboard - Windows ALT+NUMPAD ASCII Key Combos

17
2013-08
  • Xeon06

    You all probably know about Windows' ability to render any character by specifying it's ASCII code using the numpad. To do so, you press and hold the Alt key while sequentially pressing the numbers that make up the ASCII code on the numpad. So if I press and hold Alt, then I press 1 then 2 on the numpad and release Alt, I get male sign (♀).

    My question is, what is the defined behaviour for pressing more than one keys at the same time? Because if I try the same thing but instead press 1 and 2 at the same time instead of sequentially, I get a section sign (§). What's up with that?

    • Answers
  • SgtOJ

    You are probably hitting the combination in the wrong order when you hit 1+2 at the same time. It may seem like you hit the two number keys at the same time but really you are hitting one number before the other.

    Alt + 2, 1... is §
    Alt + 1, 2... is ♀

  • jcrawfordor

    You're actually entering Alt-2-1: §. ♀ is the result of Alt-1-2. So nothing's happening because you press them together, the computer's interpreting it as single keypresses in whatever order the keyboard sends them (which happens to be 2-1, probably because of how you type). Also, note that the Alt code system isn't ASCII, instead it allows you to enter Unicode characters (of which there are far more).


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  • Ragha J

    Open up notepad and type Alt+Numpad 1+ Numpad 6 and this give a character ► But when I type Alt+Numpad 0+ Numpad 1+ Numpad 6 I dont get any character

    Whats the difference here

    When I type Alt+2+2+5 I get ß When I type Alt+225225 I get ╔ which corresponding to Alt+201

    How is Alt+225225 is same as Alt+201?

    Thanks


    • Related Answers
  • Brian

    225225 % 256 = 201

    Or, the binary representation of 225225 ends in the binary representation of 201.

  • Dennis Williamson

    The reason that Alt+Num16 gives you ►, while Alt+Num016 gives you nothing, is so you can access both the characters that are mapped to codes 1 through 31 by IBM PC code page 437 and the control characters in that range of ASCII. You enter a leading zero for the control characters and omit leading zeros for the graphic characters in this set: ☺☻♥♦♣♠•◘○◙♂♀♪♫☼►◄↕‼¶§▬↨↑↓→←∟↔▲▼

    To give this a try, you can type Alt+Num9 for ○ (circle) or Alt+Num09 for Tab and Alt+Num13 for ♪ or Alt+Num013 for Return. Let's just say that the use for ASCII 16 (Ctrl-P) is lost in the mists of time.

    If you are using a Unicode-compatible application such as Wordpad, entering Alt+Num225225 is the same as Alt+Num28617 (225225 % 65536 = 28617) which is character U+6FC9 or 濉