What is character encoding?

Character encoding is a system that maps characters to numerical values (code points) so that text can be represented and processed by computers. It defines how characters like letters, digits, and symbols are converted into bytes for storage or transmission. Common encodings include ASCII, which uses 7 bits for basic characters, and Unicode encodings like UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32, which support a wide range of characters from different languages and scripts.