Text to Octal
Convert text to octal character codes — every character in base 8.
How to use Text to Octal
- Type or paste your text into the input box.
- Read the octal codes instantly — one per character: "Hi" → 110 151.
- Turn a code into a C escape by prefixing a backslash: 101 → \101 prints A.
- Click “Copy result” to use the codes in scripts, docs or lessons.
What is Text to Octal?
A text to octal converter writes each character of your text as its character code in base 8: H is code 72 = octal 110, i is 105 = 151, so "Hi" becomes 110 151. It's the same per-character encoding as text-to-hex or text-to-ASCII — just in the base Unix tradition uses for escapes.
Octal-coded characters live on in C string escapes (\101 is A), in shell printf sequences, in the output of od (octal dump — the original Unix hex-dump tool, which dumped octal by default), and in older documentation and formats from octal's heyday.
About the Text to Octal
Type or paste text and each character's octal code appears instantly, space-separated: "cat" → 143 141 164.
Practical jobs: writing octal escape sequences for C, awk or shell scripts (A → 101 → \101), predicting or checking od output when inspecting files on Unix systems, preparing retrocomputing or standards-document material where octal is the house style, and adding a third notation to encoding lessons alongside decimal and hex. Non-ASCII characters simply produce larger octal values (é → 351).
Runs live in your browser. Octal to Text decodes the reverse; Text to Hex and Text to ASCII give the same codes in the other common bases.