Unicode "no-op" Character?

[Doug Ewell via Unicode]

Sławomir Osipiuk wrote:

> Does Unicode include a character that does nothing at all? I'm talking
> about something that can be used for padding data without affecting
> interpretation of other characters, including combining chars and
> ligatures.

I join Shawn Steele in wondering what your "data padding" use case is for such a character. Most modern protocols don't require string fields to be exactly N characters long, or have their own mechanism for storing the real string length and ignoring any padding characters.

If you just need to fill up space at the end of a line, and need a character that has as little disruptive meaning as possible, I agree that U+FEFF is probably the closest you'll get.

NULL, of course, was intended to serve exactly this purpose, but everyone has decided for themselves what the C0 code points should be used for, and "display a .notdef glyph" is one of the popular choices.

--
Doug Ewell | Thornton, CO, US | ewellic.org