Character Encoding: Which Schemes Encode to Which Sizes?

The subject of character mapping and encoding is formidable, and many confuse the various schemes and standards available. As a reference, the list below gives the main encoding options and their associated output sizes.

• ASCII -> 7 bits

• “Extended ASCII” -> 8 bits

• UTF-7 -> 7 bits

• IBM (OEM) Code Maps -> 8 bits

• ANSI (Microsoft) Code Maps -> 8 bits

• ISO 8859 -> 8 bits

• UTF-8 -> 1-4 bytes

• UTF-16 -> 2-4 bytes

• UTF-32 -> 4 bytes

• UCS-2 -> 2 bytes (obsolete)

• UCS-4 -> 4 bytes

Links

[ A Character Mapping and Encoding Primer | danielmiessler.com ]