View source for Code page 437

{{Short description|Character set of the original IBM PC}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox character encoding
|name=Code page 437
|mime=IBM437
|alias=cp437, 437, csPC8CodePage437,<ref>{{Citation|title=Character Sets|url=https://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets/character-sets.xhtml|publisher=[[Internet Assigned Numbers Authority]] (IANA)|date=2018-12-12}}</ref> OEM-US
|image=Codepage-437.png
|caption=Code page 437, as rendered by an [[IBM PC]] using standard [[Video Graphics Array|VGA]]
|lang=[[English language|English]], [[German language|German]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
|extends=[[US-ASCII]]
|otherrelated=[[Code page 850]], [[CWI-2]]
|classification = [[Extended ASCII]], [[OEM code page]]
}}
'''Code page 437''' ('''[[CCSID]] 437''') is the [[character set]] of the original [[IBM Personal Computer|IBM PC]] (personal computer).<ref>{{cite web|title=CCSID 437 information document|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327100212/http://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/ccsid/ccsid437.html|archive-date=2016-03-27|url=http://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/ccsid/ccsid437.html}}</ref> It is also known as '''CP437''', '''OEM-US''', '''OEM 437''',<ref name="GGDC"/> '''PC-8''',<ref name="PCMAG"/> or '''MS-DOS Latin US'''.<ref name="DIS"/> The set includes all printable [[ASCII]] characters as well as some accented letters ([[diacritic]]s), Greek letters, icons, and line-drawing symbols. It is sometimes referred to as the "'''OEM font'''" or "'''high ASCII'''", or as "[[extended ASCII]]"<ref name="PCMAG"/> (one of many mutually incompatible ASCII extensions).

This character set remains the primary set in the core of any [[Enhanced Graphics Adapter|EGA]] and [[Video Graphics Array|VGA]]-compatible graphics card. As such, text shown when a PC reboots, before fonts can be loaded and rendered, is typically rendered using this character set.{{NoteTag|Systems available in Eastern European, Arabic, and Asian countries often use a different set; however, these sets are designed to match 437 as much as possible. The designation "OEM", for "original equipment manufacturer", indicates that the set could be changed by the manufacturer to meet different markets.}} Many file formats developed at the time of the IBM PC are based on code page 437 as well.

==Display adapters==
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2025}}
The original IBM PC contained this font as a 9×14 pixels-per-character font stored in the [[Read-only memory|ROM]] of the [[IBM Monochrome Display Adapter|IBM Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA)]] and an 8×8 pixels-per-character font of the [[Color Graphics Adapter]] ([[Color Graphics Adapter|CGA]]) cards.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} The [[Enhanced Graphics Adapter|IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA)]] contained an 8×14 pixels-per-character version, and the [[Video Graphics Array|VGA]] contained a 9×16 version.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

All these display adapters have text modes in which each character cell contains an [[octet (computing)|8-bit]] character [[code point]] (see [[VGA-compatible text mode|details]]), giving 256 possible values for graphic characters. All 256 codes were assigned a graphical character in ROM, including the codes from 0 to 31 that were reserved in ASCII for non-graphical control characters.

Various Eastern European PCs{{Which|date=October 2025}} used different character sets, sometimes user-selectable via jumpers or CMOS setup. These sets were designed to match 437 as much as possible, for instance sharing the code points for many of the line-drawing characters, while still allowing text in a local language to be displayed.

== Alt codes ==
A legacy of code page 437 is the number combinations used in Windows [[Alt code]]s.<ref name="Alt_and_Numpad" /><ref name="Entering_Unicode" /><ref name="Alt_and_Numpad_2" /> A DOS user could enter a character by holding down the [[Alt key]] and entering the character code on the [[numeric keypad|numpad]]<ref name="Alt_and_Numpad" /> and many users memorized the numbers needed for CP437 (or for the similar [[CP850]]). Although Microsoft Windows used different character sets such as [[CP1252]], the original numbers were emulated so users could continue to use them; Microsoft added the ability to type a code from the Windows character set by typing 0 before the digits.<ref name="Alt_and_Numpad" /><ref name="ASCII_Insertion_on_Word" />

{{anchor|Characters}}

== Character set ==
The following tables show code page 437. Each character is shown with its equivalent [[Unicode]] code point (when it is not equal to the character's code). A [[tooltip]], generally available only when one points to the immediate left of the character, shows the Unicode code point name and the decimal [[Alt code]]. See also the notes below, as there are multiple equivalent Unicode characters for some code points.

Although the ROM provides a graphic for all 256 different possible 8-bit codes, some [[API]]s will not print some code points, in particular the range 0-31 and the code at 127.<ref name="IBM_1986_437"/> Instead, they will interpret them as control characters. For instance, many methods of outputting text on the original IBM PC would interpret [[hexadecimal|hex]] codes 07, 08, 0A, and 0D as [[BEL (ASCII)|BEL]], [[BS (ASCII)|BS]], [[LF (ASCII)|LF]], and [[CR (ASCII)|CR]], respectively. Many printers were also unable to print these characters.

{|{{chset-table-header1|Code page 437<ref name="Unicode_1996_437"/><ref name="cpgid437pdf"/><ref name="CPGID_00437"/><ref name="icu"/>}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|0x<br/>0}}
|{{chset-ctrl1|Alt+0&#10;U+0000 NUL|{{resize|85%|[[Null character|NUL]]}}|fn={{Efn|0 draws a blank space, but usage as the [[C string handling|C string]] terminator means it is more accurately translated as NUL. In their code-page-437-based implementation of C0-region graphics, [[Star Micronics]] printers re-purpose this code as a [[slashed zero]].{{refn|{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040908060123/http://www.star-m.jp/eng/service/usermanual/lc8021um.pdf#page=61 |url=http://www.star-m.jp/eng/service/usermanual/lc8021um.pdf#page=61 |archive-date=8 September 2004 |title=Appendix D: Character Sets (§ IBM Special Character Set) |page=55 |work=User's Manual: LC-8021 Dot Matrix Printer |publisher=[[Star Micronics]] |year=1997 |access-date=25 April 2024 |url-status=live }}}}}}}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=263A|Alt+1&#10;U+263A WHITE SMILING FACE|[[☺|{{Emoji presentation|☺|text}}]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=263B|Alt+2&#10;U+263B BLACK SMILING FACE|[[☻]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2665|Alt+3&#10;U+2665 BLACK HEART SUIT|[[Suit (cards)|{{Emoji presentation|♥|text}}]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2666|Alt+4&#10;U+2666 BLACK DIAMOND SUIT|[[Suit (cards)|{{Emoji presentation|♦|text}}]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2663|Alt+5&#10;U+2663 BLACK CLUB SUIT|[[Suit (cards)|{{Emoji presentation|♣|text}}]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2660|Alt+6&#10;U+2660 BLACK SPADE SUIT|[[Suit (cards)|{{Emoji presentation|♠|text}}]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2022|Alt+7&#10;U+2022 BULLET|[[•]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=25D8|Alt+8&#10;U+25D8 INVERSE BULLET|[[◘]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=25CB|Alt+9&#10;U+25CB WHITE CIRCLE|[[bullet (typography)|○]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=25D9|Alt+10&#10;U+25D9 INVERSE WHITE CIRCLE|[[bullet (typography)|◙]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2642|Alt+11&#10;U+2642 MALE SIGN|[[Gender symbol|{{Emoji presentation|♂|text}}]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2640|Alt+12&#10;U+2640 FEMALE SIGN|[[Gender symbol|{{Emoji presentation|♀|text}}]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=266A|Alt+13&#10;U+266A EIGHTH NOTE|[[♪]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=266B|Alt+14&#10;U+266B BEAMED EIGHTH NOTES|[[♫]]|fn={{Efn|14 (E<sub>hex</sub>) Mapping as shown, to the beamed [[eighth note]]s [U+266B, ♫], follows data provided by the [[Unicode Consortium]].{{refn|{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MISC/IBMGRAPH.TXT |title=IBM PC memory-mapped video graphics to Unicode |date=1999-07-27 |last=Whistler |first=Ken |publisher=[[Unicode Consortium]]}}}} In IBM's GCGID (Graphic Character Global IDentifier) system of character IDs, this is SM910000, simply annotated as "Two Musical Notes";<ref name="cpgid437pdf"/><ref name="CPGID_00437"/> however, the reference glyph shows two beamed [[sixteenth note]]s [U+266C, ♬].<ref name="cpgid437pdf"/> In the specification for [[Japanese language in EBCDIC|IBM Japanese Host code]], SM910080 (i.e. SM910000 with the [[Halfwidth and fullwidth forms|fullwidth]] attribute set) is explicitly mapped to U+266C, and accordingly shows two semiquavers.{{refn|{{cite web |url=https://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/globalization/gcoc/attachments/CP00300.pdf |id=C-H 3-3220-024 2002-11 |year=2002 |publisher=[[IBM]] |title=IBM Japanese Graphic Character Set, Kanji: DBCS–Host and DBCS-PC}}}}}}|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=263C|Alt+15&#10;U+263C WHITE SUN WITH RAYS|[[☼]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|1x<br/>16}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=25BA|Alt+16&#10;U+25BA BLACK RIGHT-POINTING POINTER|[[►]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=25C4|Alt+17&#10;U+25C4 BLACK LEFT-POINTING POINTER|[[◄]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2195|Alt+18&#10;U+2195 UP DOWN ARROW|{{Emoji presentation|↕|text}}|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=203C|Alt+19&#10;U+203C DOUBLE EXCLAMATION MARK|[[Exclamation mark|{{Emoji presentation|‼|text}}]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00B6|Alt+20&#10;U+00B6 PILCROW SIGN|[[¶]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00A7|Alt+21&#10;U+00A7 SECTION SIGN|[[§]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=25AC|Alt+22&#10;U+25AC BLACK RECTANGLE|[[▬]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=21A8|Alt+23&#10;U+21A8 UP DOWN ARROW WITH BASE|[[Arrow (symbol)|↨]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2191|Alt+24&#10;U+2191 UPWARDS ARROW|[[Arrow (symbol)|↑]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2193|Alt+25&#10;U+2193 DOWNWARDS ARROW|[[Arrow (symbol)|↓]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2192|Alt+26&#10;U+2192 RIGHTWARDS ARROW|[[Arrow (symbol)|→]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2190|Alt+27&#10;U+2190 LEFTWARDS ARROW|[[Arrow (symbol)|←]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=221F|Alt+28&#10;U+221F RIGHT ANGLE|[[∟]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2194|Alt+29&#10;U+2194 LEFT RIGHT ARROW|[[Arrow (symbol)|{{Emoji presentation|↔|text}}]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=25B2|Alt+30&#10;U+25B2 BLACK UP-POINTING TRIANGLE|[[▲]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=25BC|Alt+31&#10;U+25BC BLACK DOWN-POINTING TRIANGLE|[[▼]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|2x<br/>32}}
|{{chset-ctrl1|Alt+32&#10;U+0020 SPACE|&nbsp;[[Whitespace character|SP]]&nbsp;}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+33&#10;U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK|[[!]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+34&#10;U+0022 QUOTATION MARK|[["]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+35&#10;U+0023 NUMBER SIGN|[[Number sign|#]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+36&#10;U+0024 DOLLAR SIGN|[[$]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+37&#10;U+0025 PERCENT SIGN|[[%]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+38&#10;U+0026 AMPERSAND|[[&]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+39&#10;U+0027 APOSTROPHE|[[']]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+40&#10;U+0028 LEFT PARENTHESIS|[[(]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+41&#10;U+0029 RIGHT PARENTHESIS|[[)]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+42&#10;U+002A ASTERISK|[[Asterisk|*]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+43&#10;U+002B PLUS SIGN|[[+]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+44&#10;U+002C COMMA|[[,]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+45&#10;U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS|[[-]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+46&#10;U+002E FULL STOP|[[Full stop|.]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+47&#10;U+002F SOLIDUS|[[Slash (punctuation)|/]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|3x<br/>48}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+48&#10;U+0030 DIGIT ZERO|[[0 (number)|0]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+49&#10;U+0031 DIGIT ONE|[[1]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+50&#10;U+0032 DIGIT TWO|[[2]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+51&#10;U+0033 DIGIT THREE|[[3]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+52&#10;U+0034 DIGIT FOUR|[[4]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+53&#10;U+0035 DIGIT FIVE|[[5]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+54&#10;U+0036 DIGIT SIX|[[6]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+55&#10;U+0037 DIGIT SEVEN|[[7]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+56&#10;U+0038 DIGIT EIGHT|[[8]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+57&#10;U+0039 DIGIT NINE|[[9]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+58&#10;U+003A COLON|[[colon (punctuation)|:]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+59&#10;U+003B SEMICOLON|[[Semicolon|;]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+60&#10;U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN|[[Less-than sign|<]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+61&#10;U+003D EQUALS SIGN|[[=]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+62&#10;U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN|[[Greater-than sign|>]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+63&#10;U+003F QUESTION MARK|[[?]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|4x<br/>64}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+64&#10;U+0040 COMMERCIAL AT|[[@]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+65&#10;U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A|[[A]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+66&#10;U+0042 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B|[[B]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+67&#10;U+0043 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C|[[C]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+68&#10;U+0044 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D|[[D]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+69&#10;U+0045 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E|[[E]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+70&#10;U+0046 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F|[[F]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+71&#10;U+0047 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G|[[G]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+72&#10;U+0048 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H|[[H]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+73&#10;U+0049 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I|[[I]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+74&#10;U+004A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER J|[[J]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+75&#10;U+004B LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K|[[K]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+76&#10;U+004C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L|[[L]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+77&#10;U+004D LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M|[[M]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+78&#10;U+004E LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N|[[N]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+79&#10;U+004F LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O|[[O]]}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|5x<br/>80}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+80&#10;U+0050 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P|[[P]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+81&#10;U+0051 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q|[[Q]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+82&#10;U+0052 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R|[[R]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+83&#10;U+0053 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S|[[S]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+84&#10;U+0054 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T|[[T]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+85&#10;U+0055 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U|[[U]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+86&#10;U+0056 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V|[[V]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+87&#10;U+0057 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W|[[W]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+88&#10;U+0058 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X|[[X]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+89&#10;U+0059 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y|[[Y]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+90&#10;U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z|[[Z]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+91&#10;U+005B LEFT SQUARE BRACKET|[[Square brackets|&#91;]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+92&#10;U+005C REVERSE SOLIDUS|[[Backslash|\]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+93&#10;U+005D RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET|[[Square brackets|&#93;]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+94&#10;U+005E CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT|[[^]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+95&#10;U+005F LOW LINE|[[Underscore|_]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|6x<br/>96}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+96&#10;U+0060 GRAVE ACCENT|[[`]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+97&#10;U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A|[[a]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+98&#10;U+0062 LATIN SMALL LETTER B|[[b]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+99&#10;U+0063 LATIN SMALL LETTER C|[[c]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+100&#10;U+0064 LATIN SMALL LETTER D|[[d]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+101&#10;U+0065 LATIN SMALL LETTER E|[[e]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+102&#10;U+0066 LATIN SMALL LETTER F|[[f]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+103&#10;U+0067 LATIN SMALL LETTER G|[[g]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+104&#10;U+0068 LATIN SMALL LETTER H|[[h]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+105&#10;U+0069 LATIN SMALL LETTER I|[[i]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+106&#10;U+006A LATIN SMALL LETTER J|[[j]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+107&#10;U+006B LATIN SMALL LETTER K|[[k]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+108&#10;U+006C LATIN SMALL LETTER L|[[l]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+109&#10;U+006D LATIN SMALL LETTER M|[[m]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+110&#10;U+006E LATIN SMALL LETTER N|[[n]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+111&#10;U+006F LATIN SMALL LETTER O|[[o]]}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|7x<br/>112}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+112&#10;U+0070 LATIN SMALL LETTER P|[[p]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+113&#10;U+0071 LATIN SMALL LETTER Q|[[q]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+114&#10;U+0072 LATIN SMALL LETTER R|[[r]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+115&#10;U+0073 LATIN SMALL LETTER S|[[s]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+116&#10;U+0074 LATIN SMALL LETTER T|[[t]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+117&#10;U+0075 LATIN SMALL LETTER U|[[u]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+118&#10;U+0076 LATIN SMALL LETTER V|[[v]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+119&#10;U+0077 LATIN SMALL LETTER W|[[w]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+120&#10;U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X|[[x]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+121&#10;U+0079 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y|[[y]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+122&#10;U+007A LATIN SMALL LETTER Z|[[z]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+123&#10;U+007B LEFT CURLY BRACKET|[[Braces (punctuation)|{]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+124&#10;U+007C VERTICAL LINE|[[Vertical bar|{{pipe}}]]|fn={{Efn|124 (7C<sub>hex</sub>) The actual glyph at this position is a [[broken bar]] [U+00A6, ¦] in the original [[IBM Personal Computer|IBM PC]] and [[IBM PC compatible|compatibles]] font, as rendered by the original [[IBM Monochrome Display Adapter|MDA]]. This rendering was later adopted for [[Color Graphics Adapter|CGA]], [[Enhanced Graphics Adapter|EGA]] and [[Video Graphics Array|VGA]] (see image at the beginning of the article). However, almost all software assumes this code is the ASCII character [U+007C, <nowiki>|</nowiki>]; for example, programming languages use it as "or". In the early 1990s, it was clarified{{By whom|date=July 2023}} that there is vertical bar in [[ASCII]] at this position and that the broken bar symbol is not part of ASCII.}}|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+125&#10;U+007D RIGHT CURLY BRACKET|[[Braces (punctuation)|}]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|Alt+126&#10;U+007E TILDE|[[~]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2302|Alt+127&#10;U+2302 HOUSE|[[Miscellaneous Technical|⌂]]|fn={{Efn|127 (7F<sub>hex</sub>) is a "house" but was also sometimes used as Greek capital [[delta (letter)|delta]] [U+0394, Δ].}}|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|8x<br/>128}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00C7|Alt+128&#10;U+00C7 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA|[[Ç]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00FC|Alt+129&#10;U+00FC LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS|[[ü]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00E9|Alt+130&#10;U+00E9 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE|[[é]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00E2|Alt+131&#10;U+00E2 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX|[[â]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00E4|Alt+132&#10;U+00E4 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS|[[ä]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00E0|Alt+133&#10;U+00E0 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH GRAVE|[[à]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00E5|Alt+134&#10;U+00E5 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE|[[å]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00E7|Alt+135&#10;U+00E7 LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA|[[ç]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00EA|Alt+136&#10;U+00EA LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX|[[ê]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00EB|Alt+137&#10;U+00EB LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS|[[ë]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00E8|Alt+138&#10;U+00E8 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH GRAVE|[[è]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00EF|Alt+139&#10;U+00EF LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH DIAERESIS|[[ï]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00EE|Alt+140&#10;U+00EE LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH CIRCUMFLEX|[[î]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00EC|Alt+141&#10;U+00EC LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH GRAVE|[[ì]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00C4|Alt+142&#10;U+00C4 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS|[[Ä]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00C5|Alt+143&#10;U+00C5 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE|[[Å]]}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|9x<br/>144}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00C9|Alt+144&#10;U+00C9 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH ACUTE|[[É]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00E6|Alt+145&#10;U+00E6 LATIN SMALL LETTER AE|[[æ]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00C6|Alt+146&#10;U+00C6 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER AE|[[Æ]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00F4|Alt+147&#10;U+00F4 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH CIRCUMFLEX|[[ô]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00F6|Alt+148&#10;U+00F6 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS|[[ö]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00F2|Alt+149&#10;U+00F2 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH GRAVE|[[ò]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00FB|Alt+150&#10;U+00FB LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH CIRCUMFLEX|[[û]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00F9|Alt+151&#10;U+00F9 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH GRAVE|[[ù]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00FF|Alt+152&#10;U+00FF LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS|[[ÿ]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00D6|Alt+153&#10;U+00D6 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS|[[Ö]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00DC|Alt+154&#10;U+00DC LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS|[[Ü]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00A2|Alt+155&#10;U+00A2 CENT SIGN|[[¢]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00A3|Alt+156&#10;U+00A3 POUND SIGN|[[£]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00A5|Alt+157&#10;U+00A5 YEN SIGN|[[¥]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=20A7|Alt+158&#10;U+20A7 PESETA SIGN|[[Spanish peseta|₧]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=0192|Alt+159&#10;U+0192 LATIN SMALL LETTER F WITH HOOK|[[ƒ]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|Ax<br/>160}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00E1|Alt+160&#10;U+00E1 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH ACUTE|[[á]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00ED|Alt+161&#10;U+00ED LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH ACUTE|[[í]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00F3|Alt+162&#10;U+00F3 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH ACUTE|[[ó]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00FA|Alt+163&#10;U+00FA LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH ACUTE|[[ú]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00F1|Alt+164&#10;U+00F1 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH TILDE|[[ñ]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00D1|Alt+165&#10;U+00D1 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH TILDE|[[Ñ]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00AA|Alt+166&#10;U+00AA FEMININE ORDINAL INDICATOR|[[ª]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00BA|Alt+167&#10;U+00BA MASCULINE ORDINAL INDICATOR|[[º]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00BF|Alt+168&#10;U+00BF INVERTED QUESTION MARK|[[¿]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2310|Alt+169&#10;U+2310 REVERSED NOT SIGN|[[⌐]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00AC|Alt+170&#10;U+00AC NOT SIGN|[[¬]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00BD|Alt+171&#10;U+00BD VULGAR FRACTION ONE HALF|[[½]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00BC|Alt+172&#10;U+00BC VULGAR FRACTION ONE QUARTER|[[Fraction|¼]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00A1|Alt+173&#10;U+00A1 INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK|[[¡]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00AB|Alt+174&#10;U+00AB LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK|[[«]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00BB|Alt+175&#10;U+00BB RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK|[[»]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|Bx<br/>176}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2591|Alt+176&#10;U+2591 LIGHT SHADE|[[░]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2592|Alt+177&#10;U+2592 MEDIUM SHADE|[[▒]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2593|Alt+178&#10;U+2593 DARK SHADE|[[▓]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2502|Alt+179&#10;U+2502 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT VERTICAL|[[│]]|fn={{Efn|179 (B3<sub>hex</sub>) Could also serve as an integral extension [U+23AE, ⎮] in IBM's font.}}|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2524|Alt+180&#10;U+2524 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT VERTICAL AND LEFT|[[┤]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2561|Alt+181&#10;U+2561 BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL SINGLE AND LEFT DOUBLE|[[╡]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2562|Alt+182&#10;U+2562 BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL DOUBLE AND LEFT SINGLE|[[╢]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2556|Alt+183&#10;U+2556 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN DOUBLE AND LEFT SINGLE|[[╖]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2555|Alt+184&#10;U+2555 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN SINGLE AND LEFT DOUBLE|[[╕]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2563|Alt+185&#10;U+2563 BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE VERTICAL AND LEFT|[[╣]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2551|Alt+186&#10;U+2551 BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE VERTICAL|[[║]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2557|Alt+187&#10;U+2557 BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE DOWN AND LEFT|[[╗]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=255D|Alt+188&#10;U+255D BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE UP AND LEFT|[[╝]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=255C|Alt+189&#10;U+255C BOX DRAWINGS UP DOUBLE AND LEFT SINGLE|[[╜]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=255B|Alt+190&#10;U+255B BOX DRAWINGS UP SINGLE AND LEFT DOUBLE|[[╛]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2510|Alt+191&#10;U+2510 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DOWN AND LEFT|[[┐]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|Cx<br/>192}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2514|Alt+192&#10;U+2514 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT UP AND RIGHT|[[└]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2534|Alt+193&#10;U+2534 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT UP AND HORIZONTAL|[[┴]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=252C|Alt+194&#10;U+252C BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DOWN AND HORIZONTAL|[[┬]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=251C|Alt+195&#10;U+251C BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT VERTICAL AND RIGHT|[[├]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2500|Alt+196&#10;U+2500 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT HORIZONTAL|[[─]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=253C|Alt+197&#10;U+253C BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL|[[┼]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=255E|Alt+198&#10;U+255E BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL SINGLE AND RIGHT DOUBLE|[[╞]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=255F|Alt+199&#10;U+255F BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL DOUBLE AND RIGHT SINGLE|[[╟]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=255A|Alt+200&#10;U+255A BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE UP AND RIGHT|[[╚]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2554|Alt+201&#10;U+2554 BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE DOWN AND RIGHT|[[╔]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2569|Alt+202&#10;U+2569 BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE UP AND HORIZONTAL|[[╩]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2566|Alt+203&#10;U+2566 BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE DOWN AND HORIZONTAL|[[╦]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2560|Alt+204&#10;U+2560 BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE VERTICAL AND RIGHT|[[╠]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2550|Alt+205&#10;U+2550 BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE HORIZONTAL|[[═]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=256C|Alt+206&#10;U+256C BOX DRAWINGS DOUBLE VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL|[[╬]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2567|Alt+207&#10;U+2567 BOX DRAWINGS UP SINGLE AND HORIZONTAL DOUBLE|[[╧]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|Dx<br/>208}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2568|Alt+208&#10;U+2568 BOX DRAWINGS UP DOUBLE AND HORIZONTAL SINGLE|[[╨]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2564|Alt+209&#10;U+2564 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN SINGLE AND HORIZONTAL DOUBLE|[[╤]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2565|Alt+210&#10;U+2565 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN DOUBLE AND HORIZONTAL SINGLE|[[╥]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2559|Alt+211&#10;U+2559 BOX DRAWINGS UP DOUBLE AND RIGHT SINGLE|[[╙]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2558|Alt+212&#10;U+2558 BOX DRAWINGS UP SINGLE AND RIGHT DOUBLE|[[╘]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2552|Alt+213&#10;U+2552 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN SINGLE AND RIGHT DOUBLE|[[╒]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2553|Alt+214&#10;U+2553 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN DOUBLE AND RIGHT SINGLE|[[╓]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=256B|Alt+215&#10;U+256B BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL DOUBLE AND HORIZONTAL SINGLE|[[╫]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=256A|Alt+216&#10;U+256A BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL SINGLE AND HORIZONTAL DOUBLE|[[╪]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2518|Alt+217&#10;U+2518 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT UP AND LEFT|[[┘]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=250C|Alt+218&#10;U+250C BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DOWN AND RIGHT|[[┌]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2588|Alt+219&#10;U+2588 FULL BLOCK|[[█]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2584|Alt+220&#10;U+2584 LOWER HALF BLOCK|[[▄]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=258C|Alt+221&#10;U+258C LEFT HALF BLOCK|[[▌]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2590|Alt+222&#10;U+2590 RIGHT HALF BLOCK|[[▐]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2580|Alt+223&#10;U+2580 UPPER HALF BLOCK|[[▀]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|Ex<br/>224}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=03B1|Alt+224&#10;U+03B1 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA|[[α]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00DF|Alt+225&#10;U+00DF LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S|[[ß]]|fn={{Efn|[[File:Code Page 437 E0-EF Comparison.svg|thumb|Comparison of characters in the E0 to EF range across various IBM products.]]225 (E1<sub>hex</sub>) is identified by IBM as Latin "[[ß|Sharp s]] Small"<ref name="CPGID_00437"/> [U+00DF, ß] but is sometimes rendered in [[OEM font]]s as Greek small [[beta (letter)|beta]] [U+03B2, β].  The placement of this Latin character among Greek characters suggests intended multi-use.}}}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=0393|Alt+226&#10;U+0393 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA|[[Γ]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=03C0|Alt+227&#10;U+03C0 GREEK SMALL LETTER PI|[[Pi (letter)|π]]|fn={{Efn|227 (E3<sub>hex</sub>) is identified by IBM as Greek "[[pi (letter)|Pi]] Small" [U+03C0, π] but is sometimes rendered in OEM fonts as Greek capital pi [U+03A0, Π] or the [[variadic function|n-ary]] [[product (mathematics)|product]] sign [U+220F, ∏].}}}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=03A3|Alt+228&#10;U+03A3 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA|[[Sigma|Σ]]|fn={{Efn|228 (E4<sub>hex</sub>) is identified by IBM as Greek "[[Sigma]] Capital" [U+03A3, Σ] but is also used as the [[variadic function|n-ary]] [[summation]] sign [U+2211, ∑].}}}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=03C3|Alt+229&#10;U+03C3 GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA|[[Sigma|σ]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00B5|Alt+230&#10;U+00B5 MICRO SIGN|[[µ]]|fn={{Efn|230 (E6<sub>hex</sub>) is identified by IBM as Greek "[[mu (letter)|Mu]] Small" [U+03BC, μ] but is also used as the [[micro sign]] [U+00B5, µ].  IBM's Greek GCGID table<ref name="GCGID_Greek"/> maps the character in this code page to the Greek letter, but the cp437_DOSLatinUS to Unicode table<ref name="Unicode_1996_437"/> maps it to the micro sign.}}}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=03C4|Alt+231&#10;U+03C4 GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU|[[τ]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=03A6|Alt+232&#10;U+03A6 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI|[[Φ]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=0398|Alt+233&#10;U+0398 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA|[[Θ]]|fn={{Efn|233 (E9<sub>hex</sub>) is identified by IBM as Greek "[[Theta]] Capital" [U+0398, Θ].<ref name="cpgid437pdf"/><ref name="CPGID_00437"/> However, these symbols are for mathematics and physics, in which lowercase theta is much more commonly used (e.g. for polar coordinates).}}}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=03A9|Alt+234&#10;U+03A9 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA|[[Ω]]|fn={{Efn|234 (EA<sub>hex</sub>) is identified by IBM as Greek "[[Omega]] Capital" [U+03A9, Ω] but is also used as the [[Ohm (unit)|ohm]] sign [U+2126, Ω]. Unicode considers the characters to be equivalent and suggests that U+03A9 be used in both contexts.<ref name="Unicode_2003_40"/>}}}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=03B4|Alt+235&#10;U+03B4 GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA|[[δ]]|fn={{Efn|235 (EB<sub>hex</sub>) is identified by IBM as Greek "[[Delta (letter)|Delta]] Small" [U+03B4, δ]. It was also unofficially used for the small [[eth]] [U+00F0, ð] and the [[partial derivative]] sign [U+2202, ∂]}}}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=221E|Alt+236&#10;U+221E INFINITY|[[∞]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=03C6|Alt+237&#10;U+03C6 GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI|[[φ]]|fn={{Efn|237 (ED<sub>hex</sub>) is identified by IBM as Greek "[[Phi (letter)|Phi]] Small (Closed Form)" [U+03D5, ϕ; or, from the italicized math set, U+1D719, 𝜙] but, Unicode maps it to the open (or "loopy") form [U+03C6, φ] in its cp437_DOSLatinUS table.<ref name="Unicode_1996_437"/> Comparison of IBM's Greek GCGID table<ref name="GCGID_Greek"/> with Unicode's Greek code chart<ref name="Unicode_Greek"/> shows where IBM, for example, reversed the open and closed forms when mapping to Unicode. This character is also used as the [[empty set]] sign [U+2205, ∅], the [[diameter]] sign [U+2300, ⌀], and the [[Ø|Latin letter O with stroke]] [U+00D8, Ø; and U+00F8, ø].}}}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=03B5|Alt+238&#10;U+03B5 GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON|[[ε]]|fn={{Efn|238 (EE<sub>hex</sub>) is identified by IBM as Greek "[[Epsilon]] Small" [U+03B5, ε] but is sometimes rendered in OEM fonts as the [[element (mathematics)|element-of]] sign [U+2208, ∈]. It was often used as the [[euro sign]] [U+20AC, €]}}}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2229|Alt+239&#10;U+2229 INTERSECTION|[[Intersection#Notation|∩]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|-
|{{chset-left1|Fx<br/>240}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2261|Alt+240&#10;U+2261 IDENTICAL TO|[[Triple bar|≡]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00B1|Alt+241&#10;U+00B1 PLUS-MINUS SIGN|[[±]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2265|Alt+242&#10;U+2265 GREATER-THAN OR EQUAL TO|[[≥]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2264|Alt+243&#10;U+2264 LESS-THAN OR EQUAL TO|[[Inequality (mathematics)|≤]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2320|Alt+244&#10;U+2320 TOP HALF INTEGRAL|[[⌠]]|fn={{efn|244 (F4<sub>hex</sub>) and 245 (F5<sub>hex</sub>) are the upper and lower portion of the [[integral symbol]] (∫), and they can be extended with the character 179 (B3<sub>hex</sub>), the vertical line of the box drawing block. 244 could also be used for the [[long s]] character [U+017F, ſ].}}|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2321|Alt+245&#10;U+2321 BOTTOM HALF INTEGRAL|[[⌡]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00F7|Alt+246&#10;U+00F7 DIVISION SIGN|[[÷]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2248|Alt+247&#10;U+2248 ALMOST EQUAL TO|[[≈]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00B0|Alt+248&#10;U+00B0 DEGREE SIGN|[[°]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=2219|Alt+249&#10;U+2219 BULLET OPERATOR|[[∙]]|fn={{efn|249 (F9<sub>hex</sub>) and 250 (FA<sub>hex</sub>) are almost indistinguishable: the first is a slightly larger dot than the second, both were used as [[bullet (punctuation)|bullets]], [[interpunct|middle dot]], and [[multiplication dot]] [U+2219, ∙]}}|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00B7|Alt+250&#10;U+00B7 MIDDLE DOT|[[interpunct|·]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=221A|Alt+251&#10;U+221A SQUARE ROOT|[[Square root|√]]|fn={{Efn|251 (FB<sub>hex</sub>) was also sometimes used as a [[check mark]] [U+2713, ✓].}}|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=207F|Alt+252&#10;U+207F SUPERSCRIPT LATIN SMALL LETTER N|[[ⁿ]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=00B2|Alt+253&#10;U+00B2 SUPERSCRIPT TWO|[[²]]}}
|{{chset-cell1|u=25A0|Alt+254&#10;U+25A0 BLACK SQUARE|[[■]]|style=background:#EFF}}
|{{chset-ctrl1|u=00A0|Alt+255&#10;U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE|{{sc|[[Non-breaking space|NBSP]]}}|fn={{Efn|255 (FF<sub>hex</sub>) draws a blank space; the use as non-breaking space (NBSP) has precedent in [[word processor]]s designed for the IBM PC.}}}}
|}
{{legend|#EFF|Symbols and punctuation}}
When translating to Unicode some codes do not have a unique, single Unicode equivalent; the correct choice may depend upon context.
{{Notelist}}

== History ==

The repertoire of code page 437 was taken from the character set of [[Wang Laboratories|Wang]] word-processing machines, according to [[Bill Gates]] in an interview with Gates and [[Paul Allen]] that appeared in the 2 October 1995 edition of ''Fortune Magazine:''

<blockquote>
"... We were also fascinated by dedicated word processors from Wang, because we believed that general-purpose machines could do that just as well. That's why, when it came time to design the keyboard for the IBM PC, we put the funny Wang character set into the machine—you know, smiley faces and boxes and triangles and stuff. We were thinking we'd like to do a clone of Wang word-processing software someday."
</blockquote>

According to an interview with [[David Bradley (engineer)|David J. Bradley]] (developer of the PC's [[ROM-BIOS]]) the characters were decided upon during a four-hour meeting on a plane trip from Seattle to Atlanta by Andy Saenz (responsible for the video card), Lew Eggebrecht (chief engineer for the PC) and himself.<ref name="Edwards_2015">{{cite web |title=Origins of the ASCII Smiley Character: An Email Exchange With Dr. David Bradley |author-first=Benj |author-last=Edwards |date=2015-11-06 |orig-year=2011 |url=http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/790/the-ibm-smiley-character-turns-30#more-790 |access-date=2016-11-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161128185613/http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/790/the-ibm-smiley-character-turns-30 |archive-date=2016-11-28 |quote=If you look at the first 32 characters in the [[IBM PC]] character set you'll see lots of whimsical characters — smiley face, musical notes, playing card suits and others. These were intended for character based games [...] Since we were using 8-bit characters we had 128 new spots to fill. We put serious characters there — three columns of foreign characters, based on our [[Datamaster (IBM)|Datamaster]] experience. Three columns of block graphic characters [...] many customers with Monochrome Display Adapter would have no graphics at all. [...] two columns had math symbols, greek letters (for math) and others [...] about the first 32 characters (x00-x1F)? [...] These characters originated with teletype transmission. But we could display them on the character based screens. So we added a set of "not serious" characters. They were intended as display only characters, not for transmission or storage. Their most probable use would be in character based games. [...] As in most things for the IBM PC, the one year development schedule left little time for contemplation and revision. [...] the character set was developed in a three person 4-hour meeting, and I was one of those on that plane from Seattle to Atlanta. There was some minor revision after that meeting, but there were many other things to design/fix/decide so that was about it. [...] the other participants in that plane trip were Andy Saenz — responsible for the video card, and Lew Eggebrecht — the chief engineer for the PC.}}</ref>

The selection of graphic characters has some internal logic:
* Table rows 0 and 1, codes 0 to 31 (00<sub>hex</sub> to 1F<sub>hex</sub>), are assorted [[dingbat]]s (complementary and decorative characters). The isolated character 127 (7F<sub>hex</sub>) also belongs to this group.
* Table rows 2 to 7, codes 32 to 126 (20<sub>hex</sub> to 7E<sub>hex</sub>), are the standard [[ASCII]] printable characters.
* Table rows 8 to 10, codes 128 to 175 (80<sub>hex</sub> to AF<sub>hex</sub>), are a selection of international text characters.
* Table rows 11 to 13, codes 176 to 223 (B0<sub>hex</sub> to DF<sub>hex</sub>), are [[box-drawing characters|box drawing]] and [[Unicode symbol|block]] characters. This block is arranged so that characters 192 to 223 (C0<sub>hex</sub> to DF<sub>hex</sub>) contain all the right arms and right-filled areas. The original [[IBM PC]] [[IBM Monochrome Display Adapter|MDA]] display adapter stored the code page 437 character [[glyph]]s as [[bitmap]]s eight [[pixel]]s wide, but for visual enhancement displayed them every nine pixels on screen. This range of characters had the eighth pixel column duplicated by special hardware circuitry,<ref name="Wilton_1987"/> thus filling in gaps in lines and filled areas. The VGA adapter allows this behaviour to be turned on or off.<ref>Joshua D. Neal, [http://osdever.net/FreeVGA/vga/attrreg.htm#10 Attribute Controller Registers: Attribute Mode Control Register], Hardware Level VGA and SVGA Video Programming Information Page: bit 2 is Line Graphics Enable.</ref>
* Table rows 14 and 15, codes 224 to 254 (E0<sub>hex</sub> to FE<sub>hex</sub>) are devoted to mathematical symbols, where the first twelve are a selection of Greek letters commonly used in physics.

Most fonts for [[Microsoft Windows]] include the special graphic characters at the Unicode indexes shown, as they are part of the [[Windows Glyph List 4|WGL4]] set that Microsoft encourages font designers to support. (The monospaced raster font family [[Terminal (typeface)|Terminal]] was an early font that replicated all code page 437 characters, at least at some resolutions.) To draw these characters directly from these code points, a [[Microsoft Windows]] font called MS Linedraw<ref name="LineDraw"/> replicates all of the code page 437 characters, thus providing one way to display DOS text on a modern Windows machine as it was shown in DOS, with limitations.<ref name="WD97"/>

'''Code page 1055''', also known as HP symbol set 0L,<ref>{{cite web|title=HP Symbol sets|url=https://www.pclviewer.com/resources/pcl_symbolset.html}}</ref> is a subset which includes the box-drawing, half-blocks, black circles (the black circle replaces the bullet, which replaces the middle dot in this code page), and black square, and moves them to the upper half; the space is also included.<ref>{{cite web|title=Code Page 1055|url=https://www-03.ibm.com/systems/resources/systems_i_software_globalization_pdf_cp01055z.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121110539/http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/resources/systems_i_software_globalization_pdf_cp01055z.pdf|archive-date=2013-01-21}}</ref>

== Internationalization ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2025}}
Code page 437 has a series of international characters, mainly values 128 to 175 (80<sub>hex</sub> to AF<sub>hex</sub>). However, it only covers a few major Western European languages in full, including [[English language|English]], [[German language|German]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]],{{NoteTag|It also covers some less major Western European languages—as well as some other languages—in full, including [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Malay language|Malay]], and the pre-1999 [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]] [[Turkmen alphabet|Latin alphabet]], but this was likely unintended.}} and so lacks several characters (mostly capital letters) important to many major Western European languages:<!-- I was going to add Dutch to languages with missing letters but can't find which diacritics are really usually necessary for the language -->
* [[Spanish language|Spanish]]: Á, Í, Ó, and Ú
* [[French language|French]]: À, Â, È, Ê, Ë, Î, Ï, Ô, Œ, œ, Ù, Û, and Ÿ
* [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]: Á, À, Â, Ã, ã, Ê, Í, Ó, Ô, Õ, õ, and Ú
* [[Catalan language|Catalan]]: À, È, Í, Ï, Ò, Ó, and Ú
* [[Italian language|Italian]]: À, È, Ì, Ò, and Ù
* [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]: Á, Ð, ð, Í, Ó, Ú, Ý, ý, Þ, and þ
* [[Danish language|Danish]]/[[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]: Ø and ø. Character number 237 (ED<sub>hex</sub>), the small phi (closed form), could be used as a surrogate even though it may not render well (furthermore, it tends to map to Unicode, and/or render in Unicode fonts, as the open-form phi or the closed-vertical-form phi, which are even further from the O with stroke). To compensate, the [[Danish language|Danish]]/[[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] and [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] code pages ([[Code page 865|865]] and [[Code page 861|861]]) replaced cent sign (¢) with ø and the yen sign (¥) with Ø.
* Most [[Greek alphabet]] symbols were omitted, beyond the basic math symbols. (They were included in the Greek-language code pages [[Code page 737|737]] and [[Code page 869|869]]. Some of the Greek symbols that were already in code page 437 had their glyphs changed from mathematical or scientific forms to match the actual use in Greek.)

Along with the [[cent (currency)|cent]] (¢), [[pound sterling]] (£) and [[yen]]/[[Chinese yuan|yuan]] (¥) currency symbols, it has a couple of former European currency symbols: the [[Dutch guilder|florin]] (ƒ, Netherlands) and the [[Spanish peseta|peseta]] (₧, Spain). The presence of the last is unusual, since the Spanish peseta was never an internationally relevant currency, and also never had a symbol of its own; it was simply abbreviated as "Pt", "Pta", "Pts", or "Ptas". Spanish models of the [[IBM Electric typewriter|IBM electric typewriter]], however, also had a single position devoted to it.

Later DOS character sets, such as [[code page 850]] (DOS Latin-1), code page 852 (DOS Central-European) and [[code page 737]] (DOS Greek), filled the gaps for international use with some compatibility with code page 437 by retaining the single and double box-drawing characters, while discarding the mixed ones (''e.g.'' horizontal double/vertical single). All code page 437 characters have similar glyphs in [[Unicode]] and in Microsoft's [[Windows glyph list 4|WGL4]] character set, and therefore are available in most fonts in [[Microsoft Windows]], and also in the default VGA font of the [[Linux]] kernel, and the [[Universal Character Set|ISO 10646]] fonts for [[X Window System|X11]].

== See also ==
* [[Alt code]]
* [[ANSI]]
* [[ASCII]]
* [[Semigraphical character]]s
* [[Atari ST character set]], derived from code page 437

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

== References ==
<references>
<ref name="DIS">{{cite book |url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc195060.aspx |title=Globalization and Localization : Code Page 437 MS-DOS Latin US |chapter=Appendix H Code Pages|author-first=Nadine |author-last=Kano |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |access-date=2025-02-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317103555/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc195060.aspx |archive-date=2016-03-17}}</ref>
<ref name="Alt_and_Numpad">{{cite web | url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964658.aspx | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120908083837/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964658.aspx | url-status=dead | archive-date=2012-09-08 | title=Glossary of Terms Used on this Site | publisher=[[Microsoft]] | access-date=2018-08-17 | at=(Please see the description about the term "Alt+Numpad") }}</ref>
<ref name="Entering_Unicode">{{cite web | url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/murrays/2014/09/30/entering-unicode-characters/ | title=Entering Unicode Characters – Murray Sargent: Math in Office | author=Murray Sargent | access-date=2018-08-17}}</ref>
<ref name="Alt_and_Numpad_2">{{cite web | url=https://www.irongeek.com/alt-numpad-ascii-key-combos-and-chart.html |title=ALT+NUMPAD ASCII Key Combos: The α and Ω of Creating Obscure Passwords | access-date=2018-08-17}}</ref>
<ref name="ASCII_Insertion_on_Word">{{cite web | url=https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Insert-ASCII-or-Unicode-Latin-based-symbols-and-characters-D13F58D3-7BCB-44A7-A4D5-972EE12E50E0| title=Insert ASCII or Unicode Latin-based symbols and characters - Office Support | publisher=[[Microsoft]] | access-date=2018-08-17}}</ref>
<ref name="GGDC">{{cite web |url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/cc305156 |title=OEM 437 |work=Go Global Developer Center |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |access-date=2011-09-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609091246/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/cc305156 |archive-date=9 June 2016 }}</ref>
<ref name="PCMAG">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/oem-font |title=OEM font |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia |publisher=PCmag.com |access-date=2021-10-19 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127151356/https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/oem-font |archive-date=2020-11-27}}</ref>
<ref name="IBM_1986_437">{{cite web |url=http://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/cp/cp00437.html |title=SBCS code page information document CPGID 00437 |work=Coded character sets and related resources |orig-year=1984-05-01 |date=1986 |publisher=[[IBM]] |access-date=2011-11-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609084933/https://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/cp/cp00437.html |archive-date=2016-06-09}}</ref>
<ref name="CPGID_00437">{{cite web | url=https://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/globalization/gcoc/attachments/CP00437.txt | title=Code Page (CPGID): 00437 | work=Coded character sets and related resources | date=1984 | publisher=[[IBM]] | access-date=2023-08-03}}</ref>
<ref name="GCGID_Greek">{{cite web | url=http://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/gcgid/greek.html | title=Graphic character identifiers: Alphabetics, Greek | work=Coded character sets and related resources | publisher=[[IBM]] | access-date=2017-02-25}}</ref>
<ref name="Unicode_Greek">{{cite web | url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0370.pdf | title=Greek and Coptic: Range: 0370–03FF | work=The Unicode Standard, Version 9.0 | publisher=[[Unicode Consortium]] | access-date=2017-02-25}}</ref>
<ref name="Unicode_1996_437">{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MICSFT/PC/CP437.TXT |title=cp437_DOSLatinUS to Unicode table |format=TXT |publisher=[[Unicode Consortium]] |author-first=Shawn |author-last=Steele<!-- Microsoft --> |version=2.00 |date=1996-04-24 |access-date=2011-11-14 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609084436/http://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MICSFT/PC/CP437.TXT |archive-date=2016-06-09}}</ref>
<ref name="cpgid437pdf">{{Citation|title=Code Page CPGID 00437 |url=https://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/globalization/gcoc/attachments/CP00437.pdf|publisher=IBM}}</ref>
<ref name="icu">{{Citation|title=International Components for Unicode (ICU), ibm-437_P100-1995.ucm|url=https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/blob/master/icu4c/source/data/mappings/ibm-437_P100-1995.ucm|date=2002-12-03}}</ref>
<ref name="Unicode_2003_40">{{cite book |author=The Unicode Consortium |author-link=The Unicode Consortium |title=The Unicode Standard 4.0 |chapter=Chapter 7: European Alphabetic Scripts |page=176 |publisher=[[Addison-Wesley]] |publication-date=August 2003 |date=2003-05-21 |isbn=0-321-18578-1 |url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/ch07.pdf |access-date=2016-06-09}}</ref>
<ref name="Wilton_1987">{{cite book |author-first=Richard |author-last=Wilton |title=Programmer's Guide to PC & PS/2 Video Systems: Maximum Video Performance Form the EGA, VGA, HGC, and MCGA |date=December 1987 |edition=1st |publisher=[[Microsoft Press]] |isbn=1-55615-103-9 }}</ref>
<ref name="LineDraw">{{cite web |title=MS LineDraw font family - Typography {{!}} Microsoft Docs |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/ms-linedraw |work=Microsoft typography |publisher=[[Microsoft Corporation]] |access-date=2018-08-17 |version=2.00 |author=Mike Jacobs}}</ref>
<ref name="WD97">{{cite web |title=WD97: MS LineDraw Font Not Usable in Word |url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/179422 |work=Microsoft |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |access-date=2012-07-01 |id=KB179422, Q179422 |date=2013-10-26 |version=2.0 |author=Staff |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324040157/https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/179422 |archive-date=2016-03-24}}</ref>
</references>

== External links ==
* [https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MISC/IBMGRAPH.TXT IBM PC memory-mapped video graphics to Unicode] on official Unicode site

{{character encoding}}

[[Category:ASCII]]
[[Category:DOS code pages|437]]
[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 1980]]