Definition:
UTF stands for "Unicode Transformation Unit". The Unicode Standard defines several character encoding schemes for computer systems to follow. Each of these encoding schemes are prefixed with UTF.
Examples:
- UTF-8: only uses one byte (8 bits) to encode English characters. It can use a sequence of bytes to encode the other characters. UTF-8 is widely used in email systems and on the Internet.
- UTF-16: uses two bytes (16 bits) to encode the most commonly used characters. If needed, the additional characters can be represented by a pair of 16-bit numbers.
- UTF-32: uses four bytes (32 bits) to encode the characters. It became apparent that as the Unicode standard grew a 16-bit number is too small to represent all the characters. UTF-32 is capable of representing every Unicode character as one number.
