UTF-8 vs UTF-16: Which Encoding Should Your App Use?
UTF-8 uses 1–4 bytes per character and is ideal for web and files. UTF-16 uses 2–4 bytes and is used internally by Java, JavaScript, and Windows. Learn the trade-offs.
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Tags: encoding, unicode, developer-tools
UTF-8 vs UTF-16: Which Encoding Should Your App Use? UTF-8 and UTF-16 both encode the full Unicode character set. They cover the same characters. The difference is entirely in how they store those characters as bytes — and that difference has real consequences for file size, performance, string operations, and compatibility. This guide gives you the practical comparison to make the right choice. File Size: It Depends on Your Content ASCII-heavy content (English text, source code, HTML, JSON, CSV): UTF-8 wins decisively. Every ASCII character is 1 byte in UTF-8 and 2 bytes in UTF-16. An English novel is twice the size in UTF-16 vs UTF-8. CJK-heavy content (Chinese, Japanese, Korean): UTF-16 can win here. CJK characters (U+4E00–U+9FFF) are 3 bytes in UTF-8 but only 2 bytes in UTF-16. A file…
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