BOM (Byte Order Mark)

A Byte Order Mark (BOM) is a special sequence of bytes at the beginning of a text file that indicates the file's encoding format, such as UTF-8 or UTF-16. It helps software correctly read and display the text, especially when dealing with different languages and symbols. The BOM can also show the byte order of multi-byte characters; for instance, in UTF-16, it specifies whether the data is in big-endian or little-endian format. While not always necessary, it can aid compatibility, particularly in environments that require specific text encoding.