Character

Character is a data type used to represent a single written symbol or text unit.

The exact meaning of “character” depends on the language and encoding model. It may mean a byte, a Unicode code point, or a user-perceived character.

For example:

• In C, char is commonly a one-byte integer type.
• In Java, char is a 16-bit UTF-16 code unit.
• In Go, rune is an alias for int32 and represents a Unicode code point.

Characters are closely related to strings, but a string is usually a sequence of characters, bytes, code points, or code units.

Unicode makes character handling more complex because a single user-perceived character can be made from multiple code points.

Anki

id: character-definition deck: Computer Science::Data Types tags: data-types character unicode

Q: What is a character data type? A: A character data type represents a single written symbol or text unit, depending on the language’s encoding model.

id: character-unicode-complexity deck: Computer Science::Data Types tags: data-types character unicode

Q: Why can Unicode make character handling complex? A: A single user-perceived character can be made from multiple code points.