ASCII Character ␀

The null character (␀) is a control character with the value zero. It is present in many character sets, including ASCII and its extensions, Unicode, EBCDIC, and others. In some cases, it is referred to as the NUL character.

Here are some key details:

• In ASCII and Unicode, the null character is defined to be U+0000, meaning it is represented in Unicode as the number 0.
• The null character is used in C and C++ as a string terminator, marking the end of a string of characters. This allows the program to know when it has reached the end of the string.
• The null character does not have a visual representation, meaning it's invisible when it's in a string of text.
• In some contexts, it is used for padding where a fixed size data buffer is required.
• Null characters can sometimes cause issues, especially when dealing with text, because many programs will stop reading a string of text when they encounter a null character, assuming that it's the end of the string.
• In network communications, the null character is often used to signal the end of a message.

It's worth noting that the null character is distinct from the concept of null or none in many programming languages, which usually denotes the absence of a value or data.