What r certifications should i do?I am SAP ABAPer with 9 month xperience.

I am SAP ABAPer with 9 month xperience, currently i am on bench.So in the mean time What r certifications should i do?
Pl give me  suggestions that how should i utilize my this free time.Shall i go for any certifications?
Thanks in advance.

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Similar Messages

  • What apple certification should I start with?

    What apple certification should I start with?
    I am confused with which certifications I should work on first to be able to work as a technician and application support individual.

    I would start with the basic Mac Integration. It's a quick and easy test to see if you know the basics. If you can pass this, then move foward from there.
    Do you plan on taking clases or self study?
    http://training.apple.com/certification/macosx

  • A i want to do sap abap certification plz help me what is process

    hi ,
         i am working with one MNC as an abap consultant, and i want to do certification ,and i want to know how exam and syllabus , fee , and model papers.if any one have info plz help.
    thanking u ,

    Hi Kumar,
    I wish al the best for you....have a look @ this link it will provide you smple details about certification.....
    http://www.sapprofessionals.org/files/ABAP%20CERTIFICATION%20QUESTIONS.doc
    please check the following site which offers some example questions.
    http://www.sapdomain.com/certification.php
    certification ..
    /message/213564#213564 [original link is broken]
    /message/514469#514469 [original link is broken]
    /message/1315746#1315746 [original link is broken]
    /message/1736299#1736299 [original link is broken]
    /message/1736299#1736299 [original link is broken]
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    This is link from SAP about ABAP certification
    http://www50.sap.com/useducation/certification/curriculum.asp?rid=351
    http://www.sapteched.com/india/confactivities/certexam.htm
    http://www50.sap.com/useducation/certification/curriculum.asp?rid=351
    There is a pdf called ABAP certification.
    http://www.esnips.com/web/SAP-ABAP?
    You can try www.sapdoamin.com
    They provide Certification simulation questions which are very useful and a must try site.
    Some links which might help
    /message/213564#213564 [original link is broken]
    /message/514469#514469 [original link is broken]
    /message/1315746#1315746 [original link is broken]
    /message/1736299#1736299 [original link is broken]
    /message/1736299#1736299 [original link is broken]
    /message/257122#257122 [original link is broken]
    /message/130164#130164 [original link is broken]
    http://www.sapdomain.com/certification.php
    Hope these links will help you..
    Thanks'
    Sakthi.
    *Rewards if usefull*

  • Certification for SAP - ABAP

    is there any certification for SAP-ABAP ???

    Hi this will help u.
    certification ..
    This is link from SAP about ABAP certification
    http://www50.sap.com/useducation/certification/curriculum.asp?rid=351
    http://www.sapteched.com/india/confactivities/certexam.htm
    http://www50.sap.com/useducation/certification/curriculum.asp?rid=351
    There is a pdf called ABAP certification.
    http://www.esnips.com/web/SAP-ABAP?
    You can try www.sapdoamin.com
    They provide Certification simulation questions which are very useful and a must try site.
    Have a look at below link for mySAP Technology - ABAP Workbench
    https://websmp206.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/011000358700000746472003E
    Have a look at below link for SAP NetWeaver - ABAP Workbench
    http://www30.sap.com/hk/services/education/pdf/cert/ABAPWB.pdf
    The certification test consists of questions from the areas specified below:
    Topic Areas
    1. mySAP.com Technologies
    - mySAP.com
    - Navigation (system handling)
    - Technical setup of an SAP system
    - System-wide concepts
    2. ABAP Workbench Basics (++)
    - Data types and data objects
    - Internal tables
    - Data retrieval (authorization check)
    - Subroutines
    - The ABAP Runtime System
    - Function groups and function modules
    - Program calls and data transfer
    3. ABAP Objects (++)
    - Classes and objects
    - Inheritance
    - Casting
    - Interfaces
    - Events
    - Global classes and interfaces
    - Exception handling
    - Dynamic programming
    4. ABAP Dictionary (++)
    - Database tables
    - Performance for table access
    - Consistency through input check (foreigh key dependency)
    - Dependency of ABAP Dictionary objects
    - Views
    - Search help
    5. Techniqes for List Generation (++)
    - Data output to lists
    - Selection screen
    - Logical database
    - Program-specific data retrieval
    - Data formatting and control level processing
    - Storage of lists and background processing
    - Interactive lists
    6. Dialog Programming (++)
    - Screen (basics)
    - User interface (GUI title, GUI status)
    - Screen elements for output (text fields, status icons, and group boxes)
    - Screen elements for input/output
    - Subscreen and tabstrip control
    - Table control
    - Context menu
    - Dialog programming lists
    7. Database Changes
    - Database updates with Open SQL
    - LUWs and Client/Server Architecture
    - SAP locking concept
    - Organizing database changes
    - Complex LUW processing
    - Number assignment
    - Change-document creation
    8. Enhancements and Modifications
    - Changes in SAP Standards
    - Personalization
    - Enhancements to Dictionary elements
    - Enhancements using customer exits
    - Business Transaction Events
    - Business Add-Ins
    - Modifications
    Weighting Key in the Test:
    + = 1 - 10%
    ++ = 11 - 20%
    +++ = over 20%
    with regards,
    HEma SUndara.
    pls give points if u find helpful.

  • Whats the important of "  table-type  " in sap abap?

    hi,
    i am ahmed. abap fresher.
    i want to what use and importance of table-type in sap abap which comes in      
                         datadictionary
                                V               
                        data types
    V----
    V                         V                                 V
    data element       structure                   table type
    i want to know about table type. plz give a brief idea.
    bye.

    hi,
    Transparent Tables
    A transparent table in the dictionary has a one-to-one relationship with a table in the database. Its structure in R/3 Data Dictionary corresponds to a single database table. For each transparent table definition in the dictionary, there is one associated table in the database. The database table has the same name, the same number of fields, and the fields have the same names as the R/3 table definition. When looking at the definition of an R/3 transparent table, it might seem like you are looking at the database table itself.
    Transparent tables are much more common than pooled or cluster tables. They are used to hold application data. Application data is the master data or transaction data used by an application. An example of master data is the table of vendors (called vendor master data), or the table of customers (called customer master data). An example of transaction data is the orders placed by the customers, or the orders sent to the vendors.
    Transparent tables are probably the only type of table you will ever create. Pooled and cluster tables are not usually used to hold application data but instead hold system data, such as system configuration information, or historical and statistical data.
    Both pooled and cluster tables have many-to-one relationships with database tables. Both can appear as many tables in R/3, but they are stored as a single table in the database. The database table has a different name, different number of fields, and different field names than the R/3 table. The difference between the two types lies in the characteristics of the data they hold, and will be explained in the following sections.
    Table Pools and Pooled Tables
    A pooled table in R/3 has a many-to-one relationship with a table in the database (see Figures 3.1 and 3.2). For one table in the database, there are many tables in the R/3 Data Dictionary. The table in the database has a different name than the tables in the DDIC, it has a different number of fields, and the fields have different names as well. Pooled tables are an SAP proprietary construct.
    When you look at a pooled table in R/3, you see a description of a table. However, in the database, it is stored along with other pooled tables in a single table called a table pool. A table pool is a database table with a special structure that enables the data of many R/3 tables to be stored within it. It can only hold pooled tables.
    R/3 uses table pools to hold a large number (tens to thousands) of very small tables (about 10 to 100 rows each). Table pools reduce the amount of database resources needed when many small tables have to be open at the same time. SAP uses them for system data. You might create a table pool if you need to create hundreds of small tables that each hold only a few rows of data. To implement these small tables as pooled tables, you first create the definition of a table pool in R/3 to hold them all. When activated, an associated single table (the table pool) will be created in the database. You can then define pooled tables within R/3 and assign them all to your table pool (see Figure 3.2).
    Pooled tables are primarily used by SAP to hold customizing data.
    When a corporation installs any large system, the system is usually customized in some way to meet the unique needs of the corporation. In R/3, such customization is done via customizing tables. Customizing tables contain codes, field validations, number ranges, and parameters that change the way the R/3 applications behave.
    Some examples of data contained in customizing tables are country codes, region (state or province) codes, reconciliation account numbers, exchange rates, depreciation methods, and pricing conditions. Even screen flows, field validations, and individual field attributes are sometimes table-driven via settings in customizing tables.
    During the initial implementation of the system the data in the customizing tables is set up by a functional analyst. He or she will usually have experience relating to the business area being implemented and extensive training in the configuration of an R/3 system.
    Table Clusters and Cluster Tables
    A cluster table is similar to a pooled table. It has a many-to-one relationship with a table in the database. Many cluster tables are stored in a single table in the database called a table cluster.
    A table cluster is similar to a table pool. It holds many tables within it. The tables it holds are all cluster tables.
    Like pooled tables, cluster tables are another proprietary SAP construct. They are used to hold data from a few (approximately 2 to 10) very large tables. They would be used when these tables have a part of their primary keys in common, and if the data in these tables are all accessed simultaneously. The data is stored logically as shown in Figure 3.3.
    Figure 3.3 : Table clusters store data from several tables based on the primary key fields that they have in common.
    Table clusters contain fewer tables than table pools and, unlike table pools, the primary key of each table within the table cluster begins with the same field or fields. Rows from the cluster tables are combined into a single row in the table cluster. The rows are combined based on the part of the primary key they have in common. Thus, when a row is read from any one of the tables in the cluster, all related rows in all cluster tables are also retrieved, but only a single I/O is needed.
    A cluster is advantageous in the case where data is accessed from multiple tables simultaneously and those tables have at least one of their primary key fields in common. Cluster tables reduce the number of database reads and thereby improve performance.
    For example, as shown in Figure 3.4, the first four primary key fields in cdhdr and cdpos are identical. They become the primary key for the table cluster with the addition of a standard system field pageno to ensure that each row is unique.
    Reward if helpful
    Jagadish

  • What are all the certifications should i do?

    Hii friends,
    I introduce myself as a newbie in dis world of oracle plsql.Me having a experience of 2.5yrs in various but with a relevant exp of 6months on oracle10g plsql.And I think its the time for me to concentrate on doing certifications.
    1) Could you folks can list out me what are all the certification should i go for.
    2)And the books should I buy ????
    3)Sites that provide mock exams????
    I desperately need your valuable suggestions.
    Edited by: user13310481 on Jun 23, 2010 10:53 PM

    user13310481 wrote:
    Hii friends,
    I introduce myself as a newbie in dis world of oracle plsql.Me having a experience of 2.5yrs in various but with a relevant exp of 6months on oracle10g plsql.And I think its the time for me to concentrate on doing certifications.
    1) Could you folks can list out me what are all the certification should i go for.
    2)And the books should I buy ????
    3)Sites that provide mock exams????
    I desperately need your valuable suggestions.
    Please start reading the following articles
    http://blogs.oracle.com/certification/2009/05/the_route_you_choose.html
    http://forums.oracle.com/forums/ann.jspa?annID=794
    http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=39
    My Oracle Video Tutorials - http://kamranagayev.wordpress.com/oracle-video-tutorials/

  • Which version of ABAP certification should i take up?

    Hi,
    I am new to SAP. I have taken up some training on SAP ABAP for non-SAP authorized training centers and planning to take up certification.
    Could some one please explain to me the difference between C_TAW12_71 and C_TAW12_731.
    Do you think any ABAP/4 Training taken and materials studied should suffice taking either of 71 or 731 certification?
    Are there any specific study materials for each of these certifications?
    Which certification do you think I should take up? and what are the benefits of each?
    Thanks in Advance
    Regards
    Ibrahim

    I can see that training.sap.com says
    C_TAW12_71 has pass percentage of 64%
    C_TAW12_731 has pass percentage of 60%.
    Is the pass cutoff the same for all regions?
    Also who do you think can give a correct answer for the region based pass cutoff, SAP Education or Pearson Vue?
    Thanks
    Ibrahim

  • What every developer should know about bitmaps

    This isn't everything, but it is a good place to start if you are about to use bitmaps in your program. Original article (with bitmaps & nicer formatting) at Moderator edit: link removed
    Virtually every developer will use bitmaps at times in their programming. Or if not in their programming, then in a website, blog, or family photos. Yet many of us don't know the trade-offs between a GIF, JPEG, or PNG file – and there are some major differences there. This is a short post on the basics which will be sufficient for most, and a good start for the rest. Most of this I learned as a game developer (inc. Enemy Nations) where you do need a deep understanding of graphics.
    Bitmaps fundamentally store the color of each pixel. But there are three key components to this:
    1.Storing the color value itself. Most of us are familiar with RGB where it stores the Red, Green, & Blue component of each color. This is actually the least effective method as the human eye can see subtle differences on some parts of the color spectrum more than others. It's also inefficient for many common operations on a color such as brightening it. But it is the simplest for the most common programming tasks and so has become the standard.
    2.The transparency of each pixel. This is critical for the edge of non-rectangular images. A diagonal line, to render best, will be a combination of the color from the line and the color of the underlying pixel. Each pixel needs to have its level of transparency (or actually opacity) set from 0% (show the underlying pixel) to 100% (show just the pixel from the image).
    3.The bitmap metadata. This is informat about the image which can range from color tables and resolution to the owner of the image.
    Compression
    Bitmaps take a lot of data. Or to be more exact, they can take up a lot of bytes. Compression has been the main driver of new bitmap formats over the years. Compression comes in three flavors, palette reduction, lossy & lossless.
    In the early days palette reduction was the most common approach. Some programs used bitmaps that were black & white, so 1 bit per pixel. Now that's squeezing it out. And into the days of Windows 3.1 16 color images (4 bits/pixel) were still in widespread use. But the major use was the case of 8-bits/256 colors for a bitmap. These 256 colors would map to a palette that was part of the bitmap and that palette held a 24-bit color for each entry. This let a program select the 256 colors out of the full spectrum that best displayed the picture.
    This approach was pretty good and mostly failed for flat surfaces that had a very slow transition across the surface. It also hit a major problem early on with the web and windowed operating systems – because the video cards were also 8-bit systems with a single palette for the entire screen. That was fine for a game that owned the entire screen, but not for when images from different sources shared the screen. The solution to this is a standard web palette was created and most browsers, etc. used that palette if there was palette contention.
    Finally, there were some intermediate solutions such as 16-bits/pixel which did provide the entire spectrum, but with a coarse level of granularity where the human eye could see jumps in shade changes. This found little usage because memory prices dropped and video cards jumped quickly from 8-bit to 24-bit in a year.
    Next is lossy compression. Compression is finding patterns that repeat in a file and then in the second case just point back to the first run. What if you have a run of 20 pixels where the only difference in the second run is two of the pixels are redder by a value of 1? The human eye can't see that difference. So you change the second run to match the first and voila, you can compress it. Most lossy compression schemes let you set the level of lossiness.
    This approach does have one serious problem when you use a single color to designate transparency. If that color is shifted by a single bit, it is no longer transparent. This is why lossy formats were used almost exclusively for pictures and never in games.
    Finally comes lossless. This is where the program compresses the snot out of the image with no loss of information. I'm not going to dive into what/how of this except to bring up the point that compressing the images takes substantially more time than decompressing them. So displaying compressed images – fast. Compressing images – not so fast. This can lead to situations where for performance reasons you do not want to store in a lossless format on the fly.
    Transparency
    Transparency comes in three flavors. (If you know an artist who creates web content – have them read this section. It's amazing the number who are clueless on this issue.) The first flavor is none – the bitmap is a rectangle and will obscure every pixel below it.
    The second is a bitmap where a designated color value (most use magenta but it can be any color) means transparent. So other colors are drawn and the magenta pixels are not drawn so the underlying pixel is displayed. This requires rendering the image on a selected background color and the edge pixels that should be partially the image and partially the background pixel then are partially the background color. You see this in practice with 256 color icons where they have perfect edges on a white background yet have a weird white halo effect on their edges on a black background.
    The third flavor is 8 bits of transparency (i.e. 256 values from 0 – 100%) for each pixel. This is what is meant by a 32-bit bitmap, it is 24-bits of color and 8 bits of transparency. This provides an image that has finer graduations than the human eye can discern. One word of warning when talking to artists – they can all produce "32-bit bitmaps." But 95% of them produce ones where every pixel is set to 100% opacity and are clueless about the entire process and the need for transparency. (Game artists are a notable exception – they have been doing this forever.) For a good example of how to do this right take a look at Icon Experience – I think their bitmaps are superb (we use them in AutoTag).
    Resolution
    Many formats have a resolution, normally described as DPI (Dots Per Inch). When viewing a photograph this generally is not an issue. But take the example of a chart rendered as a bitmap. You want the text in the chart to be readable, and you may want it to print cleanly on a 600 DPI printer, but on the screen you want the 600 dots that take up an inch to display using just 96 pixels. The resolution provides this ability. The DPI does not exist in some formats and is optional in others (note: it is not required in any format, but it is unusual for it to be missing in PNG).
    The important issue of DPI is that when rendering a bitmap the user may want the ability to zoom in on and/or to print at the printer's resolution but display at a lower resolution – you need to provide the ability for the calling program to set the DPI. There's a very powerful charting program that is useless except for standard viewing on a monitor – because it renders at 96 DPI and that's it. Don't limit your uses.
    File formats
    Ok, so what file formats should you use? Let's go from most to least useful.
    PNG – 32-bit (or less), lossless compression, small file sizes – what's not to like. Older versions of some browsers (like Internet Explorer) would display the transparent pixels with an off-white color but the newer versions handle it properly. Use this (in 32-bit mode using 8 bits for transparency) for everything.
    ICO – This is the icon file used to represent applications on the desktop, etc. It is a collection of bitmaps which can each be of any resolution and bit depth. For these build it using just 32-bit png files from 16x16 up to 256x256. If your O/S or an application needs a lesser bit depth, it will reduce on the fly – and keep the 8 bits of transparency.
    JPEG – 24-bit only (i.e. no transparency), lossy, small file sizes. There is no reason to use this format unless you have significant numbers of people using old browsers. It's not a bad format, but it is inferior to PNG with no advantages.
    GIF – 8-bit, lossy, very small file sizes. GIF has two unique features. First, you can place multiple GIF bitmaps in a single file with a delay set between each. It will then play through those giving you an animated bitmap. This works on every browser back to the 0.9 versions and it's a smaller file size than a flash file. On the flip side it is only 8 bits and in today's world that tends to look poor (although some artists can do amazing things with just 8 bits). It also has a set color as transparent so it natively supports transparency (of the on/off variety). This is useful if you want animated bitmaps without the overhead of flash or if bandwidth is a major issue.
    BMP (also called DIB) – from 1 up to 32-bit, lossless, large file sizes. There is one case to use this – when speed is the paramount issue. Many 2-D game programs, especially before the graphics cards available today, would store all bitmaps as a BMP/DIB because no decompression was required and that time saving is critical when you are trying to display 60 frames/second for a game.
    TIFF – 32-bit (or less), lossless compression, small file sizes – and no better than PNG. Basically the government and some large companies decided they needed a "standard" so that software in the future could still read these old files. This whole argument makes no sense as PNG fits the bill. But for some customers (like the federal government), it's TIFF instead of PNG. Use this when the customer requests it (but otherwise use PNG).
    Everything Else – Obsolete. If you are creating a bitmap editor then by all means support reading/writing every format around. But for other uses – stick to the 2+4 formats above.
    Edited by: 418479 on Dec 3, 2010 9:54 AM
    Edited by: Darryl Burke -- irrelevant blog link removed

    I don't think the comment about jpeg being inferior to png and having no advantages is fair. The advantage is precisely the smaller file sizes because of lossy compression. Saving an image at 80-90% quality is virtually indistinguishable from a corresponding png image and can be significantly smaller in file size. Case in point, the rocket picture in that blog post is a jpeg, as is the picture of the blogger.
    The statements about the TIFF format is slightly wrong. TIFF is sort of an all encompassing format that's not actually associated with any specific compression. It can be lossless, lossy, or raw. You can have jpeg, jpeg2000, lzw, packbits, or deflate (png) compressed tiff files. There's also a few compressions that specialize in binary images (used alot for faxes). In fact, the tiff format has a mechanism that allows you to use your own undefined compression. This flexibility comes at a price: not all image viewers can open a tiff file, and those that do may not be able to open all tiff files.
    Ultimately though, the main reason people use TIFF is because of its multipage support (like a pdf file), because of those binary compressions (for faxes), and because of its ability include virtually any metadata about the image you want (ex: geographical information in a "GeoTIFF").

  • What every developer should know about character encoding

    This was originally posted (with better formatting) at Moderator edit: link removed/what-every-developer-should-know-about-character-encoding.html. I'm posting because lots of people trip over this.
    If you write code that touches a text file, you probably need this.
    Lets start off with two key items
    1.Unicode does not solve this issue for us (yet).
    2.Every text file is encoded. There is no such thing as an unencoded file or a "general" encoding.
    And lets add a codacil to this – most Americans can get by without having to take this in to account – most of the time. Because the characters for the first 127 bytes in the vast majority of encoding schemes map to the same set of characters (more accurately called glyphs). And because we only use A-Z without any other characters, accents, etc. – we're good to go. But the second you use those same assumptions in an HTML or XML file that has characters outside the first 127 – then the trouble starts.
    The computer industry started with diskspace and memory at a premium. Anyone who suggested using 2 bytes for each character instead of one would have been laughed at. In fact we're lucky that the byte worked best as 8 bits or we might have had fewer than 256 bits for each character. There of course were numerous charactersets (or codepages) developed early on. But we ended up with most everyone using a standard set of codepages where the first 127 bytes were identical on all and the second were unique to each set. There were sets for America/Western Europe, Central Europe, Russia, etc.
    And then for Asia, because 256 characters were not enough, some of the range 128 – 255 had what was called DBCS (double byte character sets). For each value of a first byte (in these higher ranges), the second byte then identified one of 256 characters. This gave a total of 128 * 256 additional characters. It was a hack, but it kept memory use to a minimum. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean each have their own DBCS codepage.
    And for awhile this worked well. Operating systems, applications, etc. mostly were set to use a specified code page. But then the internet came along. A website in America using an XML file from Greece to display data to a user browsing in Russia, where each is entering data based on their country – that broke the paradigm.
    Fast forward to today. The two file formats where we can explain this the best, and where everyone trips over it, is HTML and XML. Every HTML and XML file can optionally have the character encoding set in it's header metadata. If it's not set, then most programs assume it is UTF-8, but that is not a standard and not universally followed. If the encoding is not specified and the program reading the file guess wrong – the file will be misread.
    Point 1 – Never treat specifying the encoding as optional when writing a file. Always write it to the file. Always. Even if you are willing to swear that the file will never have characters out of the range 1 – 127.
    Now lets' look at UTF-8 because as the standard and the way it works, it gets people into a lot of trouble. UTF-8 was popular for two reasons. First it matched the standard codepages for the first 127 characters and so most existing HTML and XML would match it. Second, it was designed to use as few bytes as possible which mattered a lot back when it was designed and many people were still using dial-up modems.
    UTF-8 borrowed from the DBCS designs from the Asian codepages. The first 128 bytes are all single byte representations of characters. Then for the next most common set, it uses a block in the second 128 bytes to be a double byte sequence giving us more characters. But wait, there's more. For the less common there's a first byte which leads to a sersies of second bytes. Those then each lead to a third byte and those three bytes define the character. This goes up to 6 byte sequences. Using the MBCS (multi-byte character set) you can write the equivilent of every unicode character. And assuming what you are writing is not a list of seldom used Chinese characters, do it in fewer bytes.
    But here is what everyone trips over – they have an HTML or XML file, it works fine, and they open it up in a text editor. They then add a character that in their text editor, using the codepage for their region, insert a character like ß and save the file. Of course it must be correct – their text editor shows it correctly. But feed it to any program that reads according to the encoding and that is now the first character fo a 2 byte sequence. You either get a different character or if the second byte is not a legal value for that first byte – an error.
    Point 2 – Always create HTML and XML in a program that writes it out correctly using the encode. If you must create with a text editor, then view the final file in a browser.
    Now, what about when the code you are writing will read or write a file? We are not talking binary/data files where you write it out in your own format, but files that are considered text files. Java, .NET, etc all have character encoders. The purpose of these encoders is to translate between a sequence of bytes (the file) and the characters they represent. Lets take what is actually a very difficlut example – your source code, be it C#, Java, etc. These are still by and large "plain old text files" with no encoding hints. So how do programs handle them? Many assume they use the local code page. Many others assume that all characters will be in the range 0 – 127 and will choke on anything else.
    Here's a key point about these text files – every program is still using an encoding. It may not be setting it in code, but by definition an encoding is being used.
    Point 3 – Always set the encoding when you read and write text files. Not just for HTML & XML, but even for files like source code. It's fine if you set it to use the default codepage, but set the encoding.
    Point 4 – Use the most complete encoder possible. You can write your own XML as a text file encoded for UTF-8. But if you write it using an XML encoder, then it will include the encoding in the meta data and you can't get it wrong. (it also adds the endian preamble to the file.)
    Ok, you're reading & writing files correctly but what about inside your code. What there? This is where it's easy – unicode. That's what those encoders created in the Java & .NET runtime are designed to do. You read in and get unicode. You write unicode and get an encoded file. That's why the char type is 16 bits and is a unique core type that is for characters. This you probably have right because languages today don't give you much choice in the matter.
    Point 5 – (For developers on languages that have been around awhile) – Always use unicode internally. In C++ this is called wide chars (or something similar). Don't get clever to save a couple of bytes, memory is cheap and you have more important things to do.
    Wrapping it up
    I think there are two key items to keep in mind here. First, make sure you are taking the encoding in to account on text files. Second, this is actually all very easy and straightforward. People rarely screw up how to use an encoding, it's when they ignore the issue that they get in to trouble.
    Edited by: Darryl Burke -- link removed

    DavidThi808 wrote:
    This was originally posted (with better formatting) at Moderator edit: link removed/what-every-developer-should-know-about-character-encoding.html. I'm posting because lots of people trip over this.
    If you write code that touches a text file, you probably need this.
    Lets start off with two key items
    1.Unicode does not solve this issue for us (yet).
    2.Every text file is encoded. There is no such thing as an unencoded file or a "general" encoding.
    And lets add a codacil to this – most Americans can get by without having to take this in to account – most of the time. Because the characters for the first 127 bytes in the vast majority of encoding schemes map to the same set of characters (more accurately called glyphs). And because we only use A-Z without any other characters, accents, etc. – we're good to go. But the second you use those same assumptions in an HTML or XML file that has characters outside the first 127 – then the trouble starts. Pretty sure most Americans do not use character sets that only have a range of 0-127. I don't think I have every used a desktop OS that did. I might have used some big iron boxes before that but at that time I wasn't even aware that character sets existed.
    They might only use that range but that is a different issue, especially since that range is exactly the same as the UTF8 character set anyways.
    >
    The computer industry started with diskspace and memory at a premium. Anyone who suggested using 2 bytes for each character instead of one would have been laughed at. In fact we're lucky that the byte worked best as 8 bits or we might have had fewer than 256 bits for each character. There of course were numerous charactersets (or codepages) developed early on. But we ended up with most everyone using a standard set of codepages where the first 127 bytes were identical on all and the second were unique to each set. There were sets for America/Western Europe, Central Europe, Russia, etc.
    And then for Asia, because 256 characters were not enough, some of the range 128 – 255 had what was called DBCS (double byte character sets). For each value of a first byte (in these higher ranges), the second byte then identified one of 256 characters. This gave a total of 128 * 256 additional characters. It was a hack, but it kept memory use to a minimum. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean each have their own DBCS codepage.
    And for awhile this worked well. Operating systems, applications, etc. mostly were set to use a specified code page. But then the internet came along. A website in America using an XML file from Greece to display data to a user browsing in Russia, where each is entering data based on their country – that broke the paradigm.
    The above is only true for small volume sets. If I am targeting a processing rate of 2000 txns/sec with a requirement to hold data active for seven years then a column with a size of 8 bytes is significantly different than one with 16 bytes.
    Fast forward to today. The two file formats where we can explain this the best, and where everyone trips over it, is HTML and XML. Every HTML and XML file can optionally have the character encoding set in it's header metadata. If it's not set, then most programs assume it is UTF-8, but that is not a standard and not universally followed. If the encoding is not specified and the program reading the file guess wrong – the file will be misread.
    The above is out of place. It would be best to address this as part of Point 1.
    Point 1 – Never treat specifying the encoding as optional when writing a file. Always write it to the file. Always. Even if you are willing to swear that the file will never have characters out of the range 1 – 127.
    Now lets' look at UTF-8 because as the standard and the way it works, it gets people into a lot of trouble. UTF-8 was popular for two reasons. First it matched the standard codepages for the first 127 characters and so most existing HTML and XML would match it. Second, it was designed to use as few bytes as possible which mattered a lot back when it was designed and many people were still using dial-up modems.
    UTF-8 borrowed from the DBCS designs from the Asian codepages. The first 128 bytes are all single byte representations of characters. Then for the next most common set, it uses a block in the second 128 bytes to be a double byte sequence giving us more characters. But wait, there's more. For the less common there's a first byte which leads to a sersies of second bytes. Those then each lead to a third byte and those three bytes define the character. This goes up to 6 byte sequences. Using the MBCS (multi-byte character set) you can write the equivilent of every unicode character. And assuming what you are writing is not a list of seldom used Chinese characters, do it in fewer bytes.
    The first part of that paragraph is odd. The first 128 characters of unicode, all unicode, is based on ASCII. The representational format of UTF8 is required to implement unicode, thus it must represent those characters. It uses the idiom supported by variable width encodings to do that.
    But here is what everyone trips over – they have an HTML or XML file, it works fine, and they open it up in a text editor. They then add a character that in their text editor, using the codepage for their region, insert a character like ß and save the file. Of course it must be correct – their text editor shows it correctly. But feed it to any program that reads according to the encoding and that is now the first character fo a 2 byte sequence. You either get a different character or if the second byte is not a legal value for that first byte – an error.
    Not sure what you are saying here. If a file is supposed to be in one encoding and you insert invalid characters into it then it invalid. End of story. It has nothing to do with html/xml.
    Point 2 – Always create HTML and XML in a program that writes it out correctly using the encode. If you must create with a text editor, then view the final file in a browser.
    The browser still needs to support the encoding.
    Now, what about when the code you are writing will read or write a file? We are not talking binary/data files where you write it out in your own format, but files that are considered text files. Java, .NET, etc all have character encoders. The purpose of these encoders is to translate between a sequence of bytes (the file) and the characters they represent. Lets take what is actually a very difficlut example – your source code, be it C#, Java, etc. These are still by and large "plain old text files" with no encoding hints. So how do programs handle them? Many assume they use the local code page. Many others assume that all characters will be in the range 0 – 127 and will choke on anything else.
    I know java files have a default encoding - the specification defines it. And I am certain C# does as well.
    Point 3 – Always set the encoding when you read and write text files. Not just for HTML & XML, but even for files like source code. It's fine if you set it to use the default codepage, but set the encoding.
    It is important to define it. Whether you set it is another matter.
    Point 4 – Use the most complete encoder possible. You can write your own XML as a text file encoded for UTF-8. But if you write it using an XML encoder, then it will include the encoding in the meta data and you can't get it wrong. (it also adds the endian preamble to the file.)
    Ok, you're reading & writing files correctly but what about inside your code. What there? This is where it's easy – unicode. That's what those encoders created in the Java & .NET runtime are designed to do. You read in and get unicode. You write unicode and get an encoded file. That's why the char type is 16 bits and is a unique core type that is for characters. This you probably have right because languages today don't give you much choice in the matter.
    Unicode character escapes are replaced prior to actual code compilation. Thus it is possible to create strings in java with escaped unicode characters which will fail to compile.
    Point 5 – (For developers on languages that have been around awhile) – Always use unicode internally. In C++ this is called wide chars (or something similar). Don't get clever to save a couple of bytes, memory is cheap and you have more important things to do.
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