ASCII 38
Ampersand (&)
Printable ASCII
Ampersand. Separates query string parameters. HTML entity: &. Bitwise AND in most languages.
Common uses & context
The character '&' — Ampersand — has ASCII code 38 (0x26), octal 0046, binary 00100110. Ampersand. Separates query string parameters. HTML entity: &. Bitwise AND in most languages.
Punctuation and symbol codes carry the most syntactic weight per byte in programming: a single '&' can change how a parser reads an entire expression. When '&' needs to appear as literal data rather than syntax, you often have to escape it — in string literals, in regular expressions, in URLs (where it becomes %26), or in HTML (where it is written&). Knowing its exact code point (38) helps when you filter, validate, or sanitize input byte by byte.
All encodings at a glance
| Decimal | 38 |
| Hexadecimal | 0x26 |
| Octal | 0046 |
| Binary | 00100110 |
| HTML numeric entity | & |
| HTML named entity | & |
| URL encoding | %26 |
| UTF-8 bytes | 0x26 |
Code snippets
JavaScript
String.fromCharCode(38); // "&"
38.toString(16); // "26"Python
chr(38) # '&'
ord(chr(38)) # 38
hex(38) # '0x26'HTML
& <!-- named entity -->
& <!-- numeric entity -->Programming notes
- ▸Code 38 (0x26); URL-encoded form%26.
- ▸In HTML write it as & (named) or & (numeric) to avoid it being parsed as markup.
- ▸When used as literal data in regex or strings, '&' usually needs escaping — check the rules for your language.
Frequently asked questions
What character is ASCII code 38?
ASCII code 38 is the character '&' (Ampersand). In hexadecimal it is 0x26, in octal 0046, and in binary 00100110.
What is 0x26 in ASCII?
Hexadecimal 0x26 equals decimal 38, which is the character '&' (Ampersand). To convert hex to ASCII yourself, read the two hex digits as a base-16 number (0x26 = 38) and look up that code point.
How do I write the character with code 38 in code?
In JavaScript use String.fromCharCode(38); in Python use chr(38); in HTML use the numeric entity & or the named entity &. In a URL it is percent-encoded as %26, and in UTF-8 it is stored as the byte sequence 0x26.