Introduction to Data and Encoding

What is a digital file?

Wikipedia: Filename extension

Understanding digital objects

  • Bit:
    A single binary digit (0/1)
  • Byte:
    A unit: 8 bits (half = Nibble)
  • File:
    Stored segment or block of information available to a computer program
  • File system:
    A mechanism for controlling and organizing bytes into structure (files/folders) for storage and retrieval
  • File Format:
    A standard way that information is encoded in a computer file.

Identifying files

Directory listing example
Directory listing example

The Filesystem

  • Filename
  • Date/time
  • Filesize
  • File extension
  • Path
  • Access rights

What is Data?

Everything’s a number

ASCII Table
ASCII Table

Character encoding

See: Character sets, encodings, and Unicode (By Nick Gammon)

Unicode

“Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world’s writing systems.”

– Wikipedia: Unicode

Mixing languages

Лорем ипсум долор сит амет
側経意責家方家閉討店暖育田庁載社
पढाए हिंदी रहारुप अनुवाद कार्यलय
국민경제의 발전을 위한 중요정책의
旅ロ京青利セムレ弱改フヨス
غينيا واستمر العصبة ضرب قد. وباءت

UTF-8 encoding table

Unicode Symbols

  • U+1F973 🥳
  • U+262F ☯
  • U+1F643 🙃

Emoji List

Comments?

Questions?