string

programming A sequence of data values, usually bytes,

which usually stand for characters (a "character string").

The mapping between values and characters is determined by

the character set which is itself specified implcitly or

explicitly by the environment in which the string is being

interpreted.

The most common character set is ASCII but, since the late

1990s, there has been increased interest in larger character

sets such as Unicode where each character is represented by

more than eight bits.

Most programming languages consider strings (e.g.

"124:shabooya:n", "hello world") basically distinct from

numbers which are typically stored in fixed-length binary or

floating-point representation.

A bit string is a sequence of bits.

(1999-12-21)