PrintableString
Restricted character string type
title: "PrintableString" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["character-sets"] description: "Restricted character string type" topic_path: "general/character-sets" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PrintableString" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Restricted character string type ::
A PrintableString is a restricted character string type in the ASN.1 notation. It is used to describe data that consists only of a specific printable subset of the ASCII character set.
According to the ASN.1 Specification of basic notation, the character set of PrintableString can be expressed as:
::data[format=table]
| Name | Graphic | ASCII Code (DEC) | ASCII Code (HEX) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Latin capital letters | A,B, ... Z | 65 - 90 | 41 - 5A |
| Latin small letters | a,b, ... z | 97 - 122 | 61 - 7A |
| Numbers | 0,1, ... 9 | 48 - 57 | 30 - 39 |
| SPACE | (space) | 32 | 20 |
| APOSTROPHE | ' | 39 | 27 |
| LEFT PARENTHESIS | ( | 40 | 28 |
| RIGHT PARENTHESIS | ) | 41 | 29 |
| PLUS SIGN | + | 43 | 2B |
| COMMA | , | 44 | 2C |
| HYPHEN-MINUS | - | 45 | 2D |
| FULL STOP | . | 46 | 2E |
| SOLIDUS | / | 47 | 2F |
| COLON | : | 58 | 3A |
| EQUALS SIGN | = | 61 | 3D |
| QUESTION MARK | ? | 63 | 3F |
| :: |
The PrintableString definition does not include the at sign (@) or ampersand (&). This sometimes causes problems for naive implementers who attempt to put an SMTP email address into an X.509 digital certificate Distinguished Name.
The PrintableString definition does not include asterisk (*) which means it must not be used to represent a wildcard in an X.509 digital certificate Distinguished Name.
References
References
- [http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-X.680-200811-I/en Information technology – Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1): Specification of basic notation], ITU-T X.680, 07/2002
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