Default Character encoding in Java or charset is the character encoding used by JVM to convert bytes into Strings or characters when you don't define java system property "file.encoding". Java gets character encoding by calling System.getProperty("file.encoding","UTF-8") at the time of JVM start-up. So if Java doesn't get any file.encoding attribute it uses "UTF-8" character encoding for all practical purpose e.g. on String.getBytes() or Charset.defaultCharSet().
Most important point to remember is that Java caches character encoding or value of system property "file.encoding" in most of its core classes like InputStreamReader which needs character encoding after JVM started. so if you change system property "file.encoding" programatically you don't see desired effect and that's why you should always work with your own character encoding provided to your application and if its need to be set than set character encoding or charset while you start JVM. In this Java tutorial we will see couple of different way by which we can set default character encoding or charset of Java and how to retrieve value of charset inside java program.
Default Character encoding or Charset in Java
This article is in continuation of my post on Java String like Why String is immutable in Java or How SubString method works in java. If you haven’t read those you may find interesting.
