How can encoding be extended with multibyte characters?

Encoding is like giving each letter a unique number so computers can understand them.

When we use multibyte characters, it's like adding more digits to those numbers so we can represent more letters, especially ones from other languages.

Imagine you have a box of 26 numbered blocks, one for each letter in the alphabet. That’s like using single-byte encoding, each letter gets just one number (from 0 to 25). But what if we want more letters? Maybe from another language, like Spanish or Chinese?

That’s when we use multibyte characters, instead of one block, we use two or even three blocks together. It’s like having a special group of numbers that can show up to 65,536 different letters! So now the box has way more blocks, and we can fit all those new letters in.

Think about writing a story with your friend who speaks Spanish. With multibyte characters, both of you can use letters from your language and your friend’s, like having one big shared box for all the letters you both know. That way, no letter gets left out!