UTF16 encoding

• UTF-16 Encoding: The echo command in a DOS environment (like the command prompt) typically defaults to writing output to a file using UTF-16 encoding.

• Byte Order Mark (BOM): UTF-16 uses a Byte Order Mark (BOM) at the beginning of the file to indicate the endianness (byte order) of the encoding.

  • FF FE: This specific byte order (FF FE) signifies little-endian encoding, where the least significant byte of each 16-bit code unit comes first.

• 2 Coding Pairs: In UTF-16, each character is represented by two bytes (a code unit).

Example:

1. Execution:

   • Open a command prompt window.
   • Type the following command:

     echo "something" > file.txt
     

   • Press Enter.

2. File Contents:

   • The file.txt will be created with the following:
     • FF FE: BOM for little-endian UTF-16.
     • Two bytes representing the letter 's'.
     • Two bytes representing the letter 'o'.
     • And so on, for each character in "something".

Note:

• The specific behavior might vary slightly depending on the exact version of Windows and the regional settings.
• You can often configure the command prompt to use different encodings, such as UTF-8, if needed.