<P> Characters are typically combined into strings . </P> <P> Computers and communication equipment represent characters using a character encoding that assigns each character to something--an integer quantity represented by a sequence of digits, typically--that can be stored or transmitted through a network . Two examples of usual encodings are ASCII and the UTF - 8 encoding for Unicode . While most character encodings map characters to numbers and / or bit sequences, Morse code instead represents characters using a series of electrical impulses of varying length . </P> <P> Historically, the term character has been widely used by industry professionals to refer to an encoded character, often as defined by the programming language or API . Likewise, character set has been widely used to refer to a specific repertoire of characters that have been mapped to specific bit sequences or numerical codes . The term glyph is used to describe a particular visual appearance of a character . Many computer fonts consist of glyphs that are indexed by the numerical code of the corresponding character . </P> <P> With the advent and widespread acceptance of Unicode and bit - agnostic coded character sets, a character is increasingly being seen as a unit of information, independent of any particular visual manifestation . The ISO / IEC 10646 (Unicode) International Standard defines character, or abstract character as "a member of a set of elements used for the organisation, control, or representation of data". Unicode's definition supplements this with explanatory notes that encourage the reader to differentiate between characters, graphemes, and glyphs, among other things . Such differentiation is an instance of the wider theme of the separation of presentation and content . </P>

The combination of numbers and characters stored in the computer is called