What happens if you encode a character with one encoding and then try to decode with another? This is often the case when you have a mix of operating systems and/or internationalization requirements. Also, this tend to be a problem with web frameworks where the code page can be set in the http header or in the http head section. Selecting the wrong encoding (code page) may display some characters correctly but others will be scrambled. The first 256 characters in a mixed selection of encodings are displayed below. Encoding a text with Chinese Traditional (Big5) and decoding with Western European (Windows) will sometimes produce strange characters. Characters may display as a box denoting binary data, another character or even several other characters.
