UTF-8 is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode, designed to encode all possible characters (code points) in Unicode using one to four bytes. Here are the key points:
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Variable Length: Characters can be represented using 1 to 4 bytes:
- 1 byte for standard ASCII characters (0-127).
- 2 to 4 bytes for other characters, such as those in languages like Chinese.
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Backward Compatibility: UTF-8 is backward compatible with ASCII. The first 128 characters in UTF-8 are identical to ASCII, allowing software that uses ASCII to work with UTF-8 without modification.
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Widespread Use: UTF-8 is the most popular encoding on the web and is the default encoding for many programming languages, including Go.
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Efficient Storage: It efficiently represents characters, especially for texts primarily in English, while still supporting a vast range of characters from different languages.
Overall, UTF-8 is favored for its flexibility, compatibility, and ability to represent a wide array of characters.
