Karakterenkódolás

Karakterenkódolás refers to the process of assigning a numerical value to each character in a given alphabet or character set. This numerical value, often represented as a sequence of bits, allows computers to store, process, and transmit text data. Without character encoding, digital systems would not be able to differentiate between different letters, numbers, symbols, or control characters.

Historically, various character encoding schemes have been developed. Early examples include ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), which uses 7 bits to represent 128 characters, primarily English letters, numbers, and punctuation. As computing needs expanded to include characters from other languages and more symbols, extended ASCII versions emerged, typically using 8 bits to represent 256 characters.

The limitations of 8-bit encodings became apparent with the rise of international communication and the need to represent a vast array of characters from different writing systems. This led to the development of multi-byte character encodings. Unicode is the current industry standard, designed to encompass all characters from all known writing systems, as well as symbols and emojis.

Unicode can be implemented using various encoding forms, such as UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32. UTF-8 is particularly popular due to its backward compatibility with ASCII and its efficient representation of commonly used characters. UTF-8 uses a variable number of bytes (1 to 4) to represent characters, making it versatile for both English-heavy and multilingual content. The choice of character encoding can significantly impact file sizes and data compatibility between different systems and applications.

---