string10

string10 is a term used in computing to denote a fixed-length string type capable of containing up to ten characters. It is not a standard data type in major programming languages, but it appears in documentation, tutorials, and domain-specific contexts to illustrate fixed-width string handling, memory budgeting, and data serialization. In databases and network protocols, fields described as string10 enforce a maximum size of ten characters.

Implementation typically uses a fixed-size buffer of ten characters, possibly accompanied by a length byte or a terminator depending on the language or protocol. When stored as ASCII or UTF-8, the actual number of characters that can be represented may be constrained by encoding: a multi-byte character may reduce the number of displayable characters within ten bytes. If a null-terminated convention is used, an eleventh byte may be reserved for the NUL terminator, yielding a storage footprint of eleven bytes. Some environments pad unused positions with spaces or nulls to maintain a consistent width.

Operations on string10 often include assignment with automatic truncation, lexicographic comparison, and substring extraction. The fixed width simplifies serialization and alignment in binary formats, but increases the risk of data loss when input exceeds ten characters and may waste space if many strings are short. It is important to consider encoding, locale, and termination rules when using string10 in a real system.

Use cases include embedded systems with strict memory limits, protocol definitions with fixed-field widths, and legacy databases that store fixed-length text fields. Related concepts include fixed-length strings, string8, string16, and other fixed-width data types. Example: storing "Hello" in a string10 field might yield "Hello " with trailing spaces to fill the width.