What’s the difference between pressing Ctrl+A in CMD and directly typing ^A? - China DOS Union Forum

Ctrl+A actually represents the character with ASCII value 1, so it displays as ☺. The “^A” shown on the screen here is just a form of representation.

By the same logic, Ctrl+B represents the character with ASCII value 2...

And if you directly type the two characters “^A” on the keyboard, what gets displayed is the A character after escaping, and A is not a special character, so it still displays as “A”.

If you understand this principle, then try Ctrl+M and you’ll understand why it can execute the command you entered.

[ Last edited by lxmxn on 2008-5-12 at 12:41 AM ]

Floor1　dnawo	Posted 2008-05-11 22:27
初级用户　Posts 13　Credits 38
In CMD, if I enter "echo ^A" (here ^A comes from pressing Ctrl+A), it displays ☺, but if I type "echo ^A" on the keyboard, it displays A. I don’t know what the difference is between the two.

Floor2　lxmxn	Posted 2008-05-12 00:40
版主　Posts 4,938　Credits 11,386
Ctrl+A actually represents the character with ASCII value 1, so it displays as ☺. The “^A” shown on the screen here is just a form of representation. By the same logic, Ctrl+B represents the character with ASCII value 2... And if you directly type the two characters “^A” on the keyboard, what gets displayed is the A character after escaping, and A is not a special character, so it still displays as “A”. If you understand this principle, then try Ctrl+M and you’ll understand why it can execute the command you entered. [ Last edited by lxmxn on 2008-5-12 at 12:41 AM ]

Floor3　dnawo	Posted 2008-05-12 01:24
初级用户　Posts 13　Credits 38
Got it, thank you