n. A set of characters in which each character is represented by 2 bytes. Languages such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, which contain more symbols than can be represented by 256 code points, require double-byte character sets. Because each character requires 2 bytes, the typing, display, and printing of DBCS characters requires hardware and programs that support DBCS.
A character set that can be used to represent Far Eastern languages that use ideographic characters. Like a multibyte character set (MBCS), a DBCS contains both single- and double-byte characters. DBCS characters are addressed using two bytes. The DBCS single-byte characters conform to the 8-bit national standards for each country and correspond closely to the ASCII character set. See also lead byte, trail byte, Unicode.
character set encoded with two bytes per character. This term is generally used in contrast with SBCS and/or MBCS. Abbreviated as DBCS.
a coded character set in which most characters are represented by 2-byte codes.
A set of characters in which each character is represented by 2 bytes. Scripts such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean contain more characters than can be represented by 256 code points, thus requiring two bytes to uniquely represent each character. The term DBCS is often used to mean MBCS (multibyte character set). See multibyte character set.
A mapping of characters to their identifying numeric values, in which each value is 2 bytes wide. Double-byte character sets are sometimes used for languages that have more than 256 characters. See also multibyte character set.
(DBCS) A set of characters in which each character is represented by 2 bytes. Languages such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, which contain more symbols than can be represented by 256 code points, require double-byte character sets. Because each character requires 2 bytes, you need hardware and supporting software that are DBCS-enabled to enter, display, and print DBCS characters. Contrast with single-byte character set.
A character set in which alphanumeric characters are represented by two bytes, instead of one bytes as with ASCII. Double-byte characters are often necessary for oriental languages that have more than 255 symbols.
a character set that uses 2 bytes to uniquely define a character in some alphabet. DBCS is required for alphabets containing more than 256 characters. (The EBCDIC character set uses 1 byte to represent a character.)