{"id":1530,"date":"2014-06-06T15:09:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T15:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/character\/"},"modified":"2017-01-04T15:24:28","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T15:24:28","slug":"character","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/940\/character-char","title":{"rendered":"Character"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Does Character Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n

In computer science, a character is a display unit of information equivalent to one alphabetic letter or symbol. This relies on the general definition of a character as a single unit of written speech.\n<\/p>\n

Character can also be abbreviated as “chr” or “char.”\n<\/p>\n

Techopedia Explains Character<\/span><\/h2>\n

It is important to distinguish that a character in computer science is not equal to one bit of machine language. Instead, individual characters are represented by segments of compiled machine language. A universal system for characters has been developed called ASCII. Individual ASCII characters require one byte, or eight bits, of data storage.\n<\/p>\n

The character also plays a critical role in computer programming, where it may be represented in code languages as “chr” or “char.” A character is one single unit of a text or character string, where the individual characters and the entire string are manipulated in various ways by code functions and displayed in object-oriented programming (OOP) through controls such as text boxes and drop-down lists. In other words, the character in computer programming is an essential category of variable or constant that is defined and dealt with in code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Does Character Mean? In computer science, a character is a display unit of information equivalent to one alphabetic letter or symbol. This relies on the general definition of a character as a single unit of written speech. Character can also be abbreviated as “chr” or “char.” Techopedia Explains Character It is important to distinguish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[244,216],"class_list":["post-1530","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-programming-languages","definitioncat-software-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is a Character (CHAR)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Character and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Character\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Character and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/940\/character-char\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-04T15:24:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/940\/character-char#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/940\/character-char\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Character\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-06T15:09:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-04T15:24:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/940\/character-char\"},\"wordCount\":193,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/940\/character-char#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/940\/character-char\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/940\/character-char\",\"name\":\"What is a Character (CHAR)? 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