title: RACE encoding
text: # RACE encoding
  
  RACE encoding is a method for encoding foreign languages that use non-English characters (Chinese, Japanese, etc.) in ASCII characters for storage in domain name system servers. All names without non-English characters are unchanged. RACE codes are made up of digits, letters and dashes.
  
  RACE encoding is part of the larger scheme of the Universal Character Set specifically the ISO/IEC 10646. The assignment of characters also coincides with Unicode.
  
  Today, it is mostly abandoned in favor of punycode.
  
  ## Nomenclature
  
  RACE is an acronym for its main purpose.
  
  * R stands for Row-based
  * A for ASCII
  * C for Compatible
  * E Encoding
  