From: John Cowan (cowan@ccil.org)
Date: Mon Feb 23 2004 - 07:50:34 EST
steve scripsit:
> Could someone please clarify the difference between UTF8 and UFT16
> please? If it is possible to encode everything in UTF8 and it is more
> efficient what is the need for UTF16?
The short version is that in UTF-8, characters can occupy 1, 2, 3, or
(very rarely) 4 bytes; in UTF-16, characters can occupy 2 or (very
rarely) 4 bytes. Either encoding can be used with any textual content.
UTF-8 is typically more compact than UTF-16 for English and other
Latin-alphabet languages, slightly more compact for Greek, Cyrillic,
Armenian, Hebrew, and Arabic alphabets, and almost 50% less compact
for everything else.
-- John Cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com http://www.ccil.org/~cowan O beautiful for patriot's dream that sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law! -- one of the verses not usually taught in U.S. schools
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