A way to represent data using only two values, 0 and 1
Text
Built up with characters, where a character is an individual unit
Character set
A group of codes that assign a unique bit pattern to each character, allowing characters to be replaced by unique bit patterns
Character sets
ASCII
Unicode
ASCII
Initially 7-bit, later extended to 8-bit
Provides 128 unique characters (2^7)
Not enough to represent all possible characters, especially for non-English languages
Unicode
A much larger character set developed to represent all possible characters, initially using 16 bits per character but expanded over time as technology developed
Unicode
Provides over 65,000 unique character combinations (2^16)
Character codes are grouped and sequential, allowing relationships between codes to be deduced
Representing a string in binary
1. Each character is represented by its character code
2. Character codes are put together in sequence
The computer knows where one character code ends and the next begins by grouping the bits into 7-bit or 8-bit chunks
