Character sets are used to represent text characters in binary. (a) Describe what a character set is. [2] (b) State one difference between ASCII and Unicode...
Question 1 Report
Character sets are used to represent text characters in binary.
(a) Describe what a character set is. [2]
(b) State one difference between ASCII and Unicode. [1]
Answer Details
(a) A character set is a collection of characters where each character is assigned a unique binary code. [1] It defines the mapping between text characters (letters, digits, punctuation and symbols) and their binary representations, allowing computers to store, transmit and display text consistently. [1]
(b) The key difference is capacity: ASCII uses 7 bits per character, allowing a maximum of 128 different characters (covering the English alphabet, digits and basic symbols). Unicode can use up to 32 bits per character, supporting over a million unique characters. [1] This means Unicode can represent virtually every written language in the world, including Chinese, Arabic, Hindi and emoji, while ASCII is limited to basic Latin characters.
Download The App On Google Playstore
Everything you need to excel in your exams
