CONTROL CHARACTER Meaning and
Definition
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A control character refers to a special character used in computer systems and communication protocols to facilitate the control and interpretation of data transmission. These characters do not typically carry any visible representation and are therefore not displayed on screens or printed documents. Instead, they serve specific functions in managing and directing the flow of information.
Control characters are primarily employed in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) and other character encoding schemes to enable control functions within textual data. They are utilized to initiate or terminate actions, dictate formatting, or convey instructions to both the sending and receiving devices or software.
Typically represented by non-printable characters, control characters control various aspects of data transmission such as line breaks, tabulations, carriage returns, and form feeds. For example, the carriage return control character (CR) instructs a device to return the cursor to the beginning of the line, while the line feed control character (LF) advances the cursor to the next line. Additionally, control characters can also signify special commands or initiate device-specific operations like sound alerts, clearing screens, or changing font styles.
These characters are embedded within the transmitted data and are decoded by receiving devices or software to interpret and enforce the desired control functions. By leveraging control characters, efficient and standardized communication is facilitated, ensuring consistent interpretation and implementation of control actions across various systems and platforms.
Common Misspellings for CONTROL CHARACTER
- xontrol character
- vontrol character
- fontrol character
- dontrol character
- cintrol character
- ckntrol character
- clntrol character
- cpntrol character
- c0ntrol character
- c9ntrol character
- cobtrol character
- comtrol character
- cojtrol character
- cohtrol character
- conrrol character
- confrol character
- congrol character
- conyrol character
- con6rol character
Etymology of CONTROL CHARACTER
The term "control character" is derived from the combination of the words "control" and "character".
The word "control" originates from the Middle English "countrollen", which stems from the Old French word "contreroule", meaning "a counter-roll or duplicate account". It further derives from the Late Latin word "contrarotulus" that referred to a register or list used in accounting. The Latin word can be broken down into "contra" meaning "against" and "rotulus" meaning "a roll or list".
On the other hand, the term "character" comes from the Latin word "character", which itself was borrowed from the Greek word "kharaktēr". Originally, it meant a distinctive mark or sign but later evolved to refer to a written or printed symbol representing a sound or meaning.
Similar spelling words for CONTROL CHARACTER
