Encoding and decoding text

Text characters can be represented in different ways. For example, the alphabet can be encoded using Morse code into a series of dots and dashes for transmission over a telegraph line.

In a similar way, text inside a computer is stored as bits (ones and zeros) representing a code point within a code space. Most code points represent a single character, but they can also have other meanings like formatting.

For example, ASCII has a code space with 128 code points. .NET uses a standard called Unicode to encode text internally. Unicode has more than one million code points.

Sometimes, you will need to move text outside .NET for use by systems that do not use Unicode or use a variation of Unicode, so it is important to learn how to convert between encodings.

The following table lists some alternative text encodings commonly used by computers:

...

Encoding