Character

In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information, such as in an alphabet in the written form of a natural language.

Examples of characters include letters, numerical digits, and common punctuation marks (such as '.' or '-'). The concept also includes control characters, which do not correspond to symbols in a particular natural language, but rather to other bits of information used to process text in one or more languages. Examples of control characters include a carriage return or tab, as well as instructions to a printers or other devices that display or otherwise process text.