Code Pages in Windows

Many languages have few enough characters to be represented in a single-byte character set. In such a character set, each character is represented by a single byte: a two-digit hexadecimal number.

A maximum of 256 characters can be represented in a single byte. No single-byte character set can hold all of the characters used internationally, including accented characters. This problem is addressed through the use of code pages, each of which describes a set of characters appropriate for one or more national languages. For example, code page 869 contains the Greek character set, and code page 850 contains an international character set suitable for representing many characters in a variety of languages.

• ANSI and OEM code pages in Windows
  For Windows users, there are two code pages in use. Applications using the Windows graphical user interface use the Windows code page. Windows code pages are compatible with ISO character sets, and also with ANSI character sets. They are often referred to as ANSI code pages.
• Recommended character sets and collations
  While SAP Sybase IQ recognizes the names of hundreds of character sets, code pages, encodings, and collations, this topic lists those that are recommended for use with Windows and Unix platforms, depending on the language in use.