Byte Order Mark

A Byte Order Mark (BOM) is a special type of marker placed at the beginning of a text file to indicate the encoding format, specifically the byte order or how characters are represented. It helps computers correctly interpret the text’s characters, especially in Unicode formats like UTF-8. The BOM ensures that different devices or software recognize and display the text consistently. While useful for proper decoding, it can sometimes cause issues if the software doesn’t expect or handle it properly. Overall, the BOM acts as a language or format identifier at the start of a file.