Tag Sequence

Technical/Unicode

Emoji flag sequences using special tag characters (U+E0020 to U+E007E) to represent subdivision flags like England, Scotland, and Wales.

While country flags use Regional Indicator pairs, subdivision flags (states, provinces, regions) use a different mechanism: tag sequences. These start with the black flag emoji (🏴 U+1F3F4), followed by tag characters spelling out an ISO 3166-2 code, and end with the cancel tag (U+E007F).

For example, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (England) is: 🏴 + tag-g + tag-b + tag-e + tag-n + tag-g + cancel tag. The tag characters are invisible and exist solely for this encoding purpose.

Currently only three subdivision flags are in widespread use: England (gbeng), Scotland (gbsct), and Wales (gbwls), though the mechanism supports any ISO 3166-2 code.

Related Terms

Code Point Code Point
A unique numerical value assigned to each character in the Unicode standard, written in the format U+XXXX (e.g., U+1F600 for 😀). Regional Indicator (RI) Regional Indicator (RI)
Paired Unicode letters (U+1F1E6 to U+1F1FF) that form country flag emoji when combined according to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes.

Related Tools

🔍 Sequence Analyzer Sequence Analyzer
Decode ZWJ sequences, skin tone modifiers, keycap sequences, and flag pairs into individual components.