Unicode block: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Named range of Unicode code points}}

{{for|the specific group of square characters in the Unicode typeset|Block Elements}}

A '''UnimodeUnicode block''' is one of several contiguous ranges of numeric character codes ([[code point]]s) of the [[Unicode]] character set that are defined by the [[Unicode Consortium]] for administrative and documentation purposes. Typically, proposals such as the addition of new glyphs are discussed and evaluated by considering the relevant block or blocks as a whole.

Each block is generally, but not always, meant to supply glyphs used by one or more specific languages, or in some general application area such as [[mathematics]], [[surveying]], decorative [[typesetting]], social forums, etc.

== Design and implementation ==

Unicode blocks are identified by unique names, which use only ASCII characters and are usually descriptive of the nature of the symbols, in [[English language|English]]; such as "Tibetan" or "Supplemental Arrows-A". (When comparing block names, one is supposed to equate uppercase with lowercase letters, and ignore any whitespace, hyphens, and underbars; so the last name is equivalent to "supplemental_arrows__asupplemental_arrows_a", "SupplementalArrowsA" and "SUPPLEMENTALARROWSA".<ref name=uniblocks>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/Blocks.txt|title=Unicode Blocks data file, Unicode version 15.1|publisher=Unicode Consortium|access-date=2023-09-12}}</ref>

Blocks are [[intersection (set theory)|pairwise disjoint]]; that is, they do not overlap. The starting code point and the size (number of code points) of each block are always multiples of 16; therefore, in the [[hexadecimal]] notation, the starting (smallest) point is U+''xxx''0 and the ending (largest) point is U+''yyy''F, where ''xxx'' and ''yyy'' are three or more hexadecimal digits. (These constraints are intended to simplify the display of glyphs in Unicode Consortium documents, as tables with 16 rows labeled with the last hexadecimal digit of the code point.<ref name=uniblocks/>) The size of a block may range from the minimum of 16 to a maximum of 65,536 code points.