Unicode Character Set in JavaScript

In the Unicode Escape Sequences blog, we have learned about What is Unicode Escape Sequence and Normalization. Unicode Escape Sequences and Normalization are important tools in JavaScript for handling different characters and ensuring that the text looks the same. Unicode Escape Sequences help in dealing with characters from various languages, while Normalization ensures uniform text representations, reducing inconsistencies.

Using these tools improves the strength of JavaScript code, promoting compatibility across languages and creating a more inclusive web development environment. In this blog, we will go through the concept of the Unicode Character Set

What is a Unicode Character Set?

What is a Unicode Character Set? Before we dive into Unicode, let's explore how data is stored. Data is stored in bits, which are 0s and 1s. For instance, to represent the number 28, we use the binary form 11100. However, when it comes to displaying characters like b,👍 (thumbs up), or é, we turn to ASCII. ASCII, or American Standard Code for Information Interchange, assigns numbers from 0 to 127 to basic Western characters, supporting 128 characters in total. For example,

Each character becomes 8 bits or 1 byte in this encoding, known as ASCII encoding. But what if we want to display non-Western characters or other writing systems, like Chinese or Arabic? That's where Unicode comes in. Unicode encompasses over a thousand unique characters in more than a hundred languages.

To display characters or symbols in Unicode, we use code points, which can be combined. For instance, d can be represented by a single code point, i.e100, and é with an acute accent can be represented by a single code point, i.e., 233, or by multiple code points, i.e., e by 101 and ́ by 769.

ASCII Table

In the above section we have learned about ASCII. Let's take a look into its representation in Decimal, Hexadecimal:

Latin-1 Table

Let’s take a look into the Latin-1 Table where it shows the decimal and hexadecimal representation of characters:

Unicode helps websites work well with different languages, making the online experience more connected and accessible. In coding, knowing and using Unicode is essential for creating websites that speak a global language.