Data representation

Because the encoding for some characters requires more than one byte, a single character may be represented by one or several bytes when data is created in files or transferred between a computer and its I/O devices. This external representation of data is referred to as the file code or multibyte character code representation of a character.

For processing strings of such characters, it is more efficient to convert file codes into a uniform representation. This converted form is intended for internal processing of characters. This internal representation of data is referred to as the process code or wide character code representation of the character. An understanding of multibyte character and wide character codes is essential to the overall globalization strategy.