[ELI5] How do cables that have multiple wires for data and power, tell which is which?

Question

[ELI5] How do cables that have multiple wires for data and power, tell which is which?

In: Technology

Answer 1

They don’t actually need to tell wich is which because the cables are a bundle of individual wires, each arranged based on a standard socket configuration.

So any two same type of USB cable if you cut into both of them will have to same amount of wires hopefully connected to the sockets in same way. Devices don’t need a system to tell which is which, because the wires will be in an expected configuration, otherwise it just wouldn’t work as intended.