About SUB


Integer ASCII code: 26
Binary code: 0001 1010
Octal code: 32
Hexadecimal code: 1A
Group: control
Seq: ^Z

Unicode symbol: , int code: 9242 (html &#9242) hex code: 241A (html &#x241A)


Information


Substitute character was initially created in order to use as a transmission control character to reflect that distorted or invalid characters had been received. In addition to its main function, substitute has frequently been used in order to achieve some other goals. It is used to show the end of file in case when in-band signaling of errors that it causes isn't necessary, particularly when a person uses some rough methods of error detection and correction. There may be another case where errors occur rare enough to make using the character for other purposes recommended. It is also used in DOS, Windows and other CP/M derivatives in order to indicate the end of file, in cases either when typing on the terminal or sometimes in text files stored on disk.

A substitute character (␚) is a control character. It is represented in the place of a character that is identified to be invalid or incorrect, or in cases when it can't be represented on a device used. Besides, it's used in the role if an escape sequence in some programming languages.

This character is encoded by the number 26 (1A hex) in the ASCII character set. Standard keyboards send this code while simultaneously pressing the Ctrl and Z keys. Ctrl+Z, is traditionally often described as ^Z). Unicode encodes this character either, but recommends to use the replacement character (, U+FFFD) instead of representing un-decodable inputs, in cases when the output encoding is compatible with it.

End of file


If we remember history, we will see that under PC CP/M 1 and 2 operating systems of those times (and derivatives like MP/M) it was necessary to clearly denote the end of a file (EOF). There was a reason for that: the CP/M filesystem couldn't record the exact file size by itself; files were distributed in size (records) of a fixed size. Usually some distributed but unused space was left at the end of each file. This extra space was filled with 1A16 (hex) characters under CP/M. The extended CP/M filesystems used by CP/M 3 and higher (and derivatives like Concurrent CP/M, Concurrent DOS and DOS Plus) supported byte-granular files. It started to be just a physical requirement but a simple convention (particularly for text files) in order to ensure backward compatibility.

The SUB character was also used in CP/M, 86-DOS, MS-DOS, PC DOS, DR-DOS, and their different derivatives, in order to show the end of a character stream, and thus used to cease user input in an interactive command line window (this way, frequently used to end up console input redirection, e.g. as instigated by COPY CON: TYPEDTXT.TXT).

This convention is still supported by lots of text editors and programs, despite the fact that nowadays indicating the end of a file is no longer technically needed. Besides, this can be set up in order to put this character at the end of a file during editing process, or at least cope with them in text files in a right way. In such cases, it is often called a "soft" EOF, because it doesn't definitely show the end of the file in its physical sense. It should be treated as a marker more, showing that "there is no useful data beyond this point". However, in real use the situation is a little bit different, while some more data may exist beyond this character up to the real end of the data in the file system. This way it can be used in order to conceal some content when the file is entered through the console or opened in some editors. For implementing this very function, lots of file format standards (e.g. PNG or GIF) include the SUB character in their headers. Some modern text file formats (e.g. CSV-1203), that nowadays are used everywhere, however, still recommend a trailing EOF character to be added as the last character in the file. Besides, worth mentioning is the fact, that typing Control+Z doesn't implement an EOF character into a file neither in case of MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows, nor in case of APIs of those systems use the character to indicate the actual end of a file.

There are some programming languages (e.g. Visual Basic) that won't be able to read past a "soft" EOF in process of using the built-in text file reading primitives (INPUT, LINE INPUT etc.). This way some alternative methods must be taken over. There are can be lots of them, for example opening the file in binary mode or using the File System Object in order to move forward beyond it.

Character 26 was used in order to mark "End of file". The ASCII considered in to be a Substitute, and has other characters for this, but still Character 26 works well. Character 28 which is called "File Separator" has been used as well for achieving such goals.

Other uses


This character can be used in Unix operating systems. Here it's usually used in order to terminate the currently executing interactive process. The terminated process can be resumed later in foreground (interactive) mode. What's more, the execution can be resumed by it in background mode, or be terminated. When a user enters at his computer terminal, the currently running foreground process is sent a "terminal stop" (SIGTSTP) signal. In plain words, it makes the process to terminate its execution. The user can continue the process execution later with the help of the "foreground" command (fg) or the "background" command (bg).

The Unicode Security Considerations report recommends to use this character in the role of a safe replacement for characters, which are not applicable during character set conversion.

In lots of GUIs and applications Control+Z (⌘ Command+Z on Mac OS) can be used in order to cancel the last performed action. In lots of applications previously done actions, than the last one can be cancelled as well. The operator only has to press Control+Z for a couple of times. In order to control text editing, program designers at Xerox PARC picked Control+Z keyboards sequence. It was just one of a bunch of existing keyboard sequences. Perhaps the reason for choosing these very key combinations is their location on a standard QWERTY keyboard, because the Z (undo), X (cut), C (copy), and V (paste) keys are placed closed to each other at the left end of the bottom row.


Hash


MD5 Substitute

input value base output hash
SUB char BEBE43A13D6320B4C6751958BF5398A7
26 dec 4E732CED3463D06DE0CA9A15B6153677
00011010 bin 665F5462D2E4E2D70E2B81614E2FE174
0001 1010 bin A4CB49911E3BAC8E3D964DECF3E3E4DE
32 oct 6364D3F0F495B6AB9DCF8D3B5C6E0B01
1A hex 0723DFD10075AEE37A1804A728349DC3
0x1A hex CDE0CA77DD54C00E672F34CD314410F9

SHA256 Substitute

input value base output hash
SUB char 58F7B0780592032E4D8602A3E8690FB2C701B2E1DD546E703445AABD6469734D
26 dec 5F9C4AB08CAC7457E9111A30E4664920607EA2C115A1433D7BE98E97E64244CA
00011010 bin 2AF1C2A51C6AC57DD385308C7C675CC0CDB21B46E47BA5FBBBE886CA450FB7DC
0001 1010 bin D4F171BC5A3FC94C60D9D92925479720722369FED616052E4149C63DA21189D2
32 oct E29C9C180C6279B0B02ABD6A1801C7C04082CF486EC027AA13515E4F3884BB6B
1A hex CF3D835A30188F3D1566497DF9EA64CB8074AACF0A83D6506953258D6EC76F24
0x1A hex 76312A7EC79DA909DE8699916CDA4C8A9E5D614558D83AD7A37F72A743C037C9

Base64 Substitute

input value base output hash
SUB char Gg==
26 dec MjY=
00011010 bin MDAwMTEwMTA=
0001 1010 bin MDAwMSAxMDEw
32 oct MzI=
1A hex MUE=
0x1A hex MHgxQQ==
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 2018-2024 © Dmytro Koshovyi. Ukraine, Mykolayiv.