punycode

Punycode is an encoding syntax used to represent Unicode characters in domain names using only ASCII characters. It enables internationalized domain names (IDNs) to work within the ASCII-based DNS system by converting non-ASCII characters into a compatible format. Punycode uses a specific algorithm to encode Unicode strings with a distinctive "xn--" prefix. Web browsers and applications use punycode libraries to convert between readable Unicode domain names and their ASCII-compatible encoded versions. The encoding is essential for supporting domain names in languages that use non-Latin scripts like Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, and others. JavaScript implementations of punycode are used in web applications and Node.js for handling internationalized URLs. The encoding ensures that domain names with special characters can function across all internet infrastructure.