How many Bytes are needed to store this message in memory?
Arab American University
The correct answer and explanation is:
To calculate how many bytes are needed to store the message “Arab American University” in memory, you need to know how much space each character takes.
- Character Encoding: The most common encoding used for text is UTF-8, where each character can take anywhere from 1 to 4 bytes. For standard English characters, UTF-8 uses 1 byte per character.
- Character Count: The message “Arab American University” consists of 24 characters (including spaces).
- Space Calculation: Since each character in UTF-8 typically requires 1 byte for standard English text, the total space required to store this message will be 24 bytes.
Calculation
The message is 24 characters long, and each character requires 1 byte in UTF-8 encoding. Therefore, the total memory required is: Total memory=24 characters×1 byte/character=24 bytes\text{Total memory} = 24 \text{ characters} \times 1 \text{ byte/character} = 24 \text{ bytes}
Explanation
In memory, text is stored as a sequence of characters. The size in bytes depends on the encoding used. In most cases, for simple text like this, UTF-8 encoding is used, and each character takes 1 byte. Special characters or different languages may use more bytes, but for typical Latin letters and spaces, 1 byte per character is standard.
The total space for storing “Arab American University” is 24 bytes because there are 24 characters and each one uses 1 byte in UTF-8. If other encodings like UTF-16 were used, the space requirement would be larger because each character would take 2 bytes instead of 1. However, for the given message and encoding, the required storage is minimal.