How Computers Store Text

Computers use something called ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) to convert letters into numbers, which can then be stored as bits. Think of it like a secret code where each letter is assigned a specific number.

For example, in ASCII:

• The letter 'A' is represented by the number 65
• The letter 'B' is represented by 66
• The letter 'a' is represented by 97
• The letter 'b' is represented by 98

Here's a program that shows this in action:

1#include <iostream>
2using namespace std;
3
4int main() {
5  char Letter{'A'};
6  cout << "The letter " << Letter
7    << " is stored as number: "
8    << static_cast<int>(Letter) << '\n';
9
10  char NextLetter{'B'};
11  cout << "The letter " << NextLetter
12    << " is stored as number: "
13    << static_cast<int>(NextLetter) << '\n';
14
15  // We can also go backwards - storing
16  // a number creates a letter
17  char LetterFromNumber{97}; // This creates 'a'
18  cout << "The number 97 represents the letter: "
19    << LetterFromNumber << '\n';
20}

1The letter A is stored as number: 65
2The letter B is stored as number: 66
3The number 97 represents the letter: a

Once we have these numbers, we can convert them to bits. For example, the letter 'A' (65 in decimal) is 01000001 in binary. Each character typically uses one byte (8 bits) of memory.

This system works for more than just letters. ASCII includes codes for numbers, punctuation marks, and special characters. For example:

• The space character is 32
• The exclamation mark (!) is 33
• The number character '0' is 48

Modern computers often use more advanced systems like UTF-8 (which can represent characters from many different languages), but the basic idea is the same - convert characters to numbers, then store those numbers as bits.