What is a code page

A code page contains encoding to specify characters in a set of one or more languages. The code page is selected based on source of the data. For example if source contains Japanese text then the code page should be selected to support Japanese text.

When a code page is chosen, the program or application for which the code page is set, refers to a specific set of data that describes the characters the application recognizes. This influences the way that application stores, receives, and sends character data.