Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trial
Robbin Arcega
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 1,369 PointsWhat's the point of the "meta charset"?
Does it affect the actual code I'm writing? I've never seen it used before, though I have seen it in webpages when inspecting an element. This is more a question of curiosity than anything else. (Also, is it necessary to add it? What happens if you don't?)
1 Answer
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,858 PointsHey Robbin,
Yes, it is pretty much always needed. If you don't include it, you run the risk of your website not being displayed correctly by the browser. According to the W3 (as much as I'm not a fan of their docs) -- "To display an HTML page correctly, a web browser must know the character set (character encoding) to use."
UTF-8 (or unicode) pretty much covers every symbol in the world (including emojis).
There are different character sets. You can have a look at the simple W3 list or the more detailed and technical MDN Documentation.
Keep Coding! :)
Robbin Arcega
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 1,369 PointsRobbin Arcega
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 1,369 PointsThanks so much, Jason! It's been a long time since I've touched HTML. Looks like things have definitely changed a lot since I was 10 years old. :)