character string

concatenation of symbols from a particular character set terminated or bounded by a special end of string symbol; a such a symbol is part of a personal name as a hyphen, comma, or a period indicating an abbreviation; in general the c. s. may include digits, letters of the alphabet, or special symbols (used especially for punctuating subdivisions), symbols from non-English alphabets, syllabaries, or from ideographic systems; cf. Chapter 3, §1, ¶1