An ordered sequence of one or more code points.

• A coded character sequence is also known as a coded character representation.
• Normally a coded character sequence consists of a sequence of encoded characters, but it may also include noncharacters or reserved code points.
• Internally, a process may choose to make use of noncharacter code points in its coded character sequences. However, such noncharacter code points may not be interpreted as abstract characters (see conformance clause C2). Their removal by a conformant process constitutes modification of interpretation of the coded character sequence (see conformance clause C7).
• Reserved code points are included in coded character sequences, so that the conformance requirements regarding interpretation and modification are properly defined when a Unicode-conformant implementation encounters coded character sequences produced under a future version of the standard.