The term 'character set'

Characters: The term 'character set'

1.2.4b Data Storage: Characters

Data Storage: Characters — Note 3 of 4

What you need to know

A character set is a defined collection of characters and their corresponding binary codes. Different character sets can represent different ranges of characters, depending on the number of bits used.

What to know

The character set defines which characters a computer can store, display, and process.
Different character sets use different numbers of bits per character, which determines how many unique characters can be represented.

Key terms

Character Set: A collection of characters and their corresponding binary values used by a computer system. Examples include ASCII and Unicode.

Exam technique

Tip:Make sure you can define 'character set' precisely — 'ALL the different characters that a computer can represent, each with a UNIQUE binary code'.
Mistake:Saying 'a character set is the set of characters' — this repeats the question and scores 0. You must explain what it IS and what it DOES.
Tip:If asked to 'identify a second character set', the answer is Unicode. Do NOT give a character name (e.g. 'U') — that is an individual character, not a character set.

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Practise 1.2.4b questions

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Revise another OCR GCSE topic: Data Storage: Numbers