What is a code page?
For the Microsoft MCTS Exam 70 536, you will need to know what code pages are. If you have ever heard of code pages, you are probably wondering what they are and what they do. Let’s see! A code page is basically just a list that contains selected character codes. Characters are represented as code points. Code pages contain the character codes in a certain order.Why were code pages created?
Some languages share a common writing system. There are even language groups that share a common writing system. Code pages were defined for the sole purpose of supporting these specific languages or language groups.General information about code pages
For the Microsoft MCTS certification, you will need lots of general information. In Windows, code pages are comprised of 256 code points. Also, the Windows code pages are zero-based. If you want to examine the supported code pages in the .NET Framework, you must call Encoding.GetEncodings. When this method is used, it returns a series of EncodingInfo objects. If you want to specify the exact type of decoding you want when writing a file, use an overloaded Stream constructor. Make sure the constructor accepts Encoding objects!Problems with code pages – a need-to-know for the MCTS Exam 70 536
Most code pages, excepting Unicode, have several problems. Here are the most frequent ones:- Some code pages insufficiently document what each code point value means. Consistent textual data handling through different computer systems is decreased
- In some code pages, there are some proprietary extensions added by their specific developers. These extensions change or add certain code point values.
- If you are dealing with multiple languages, these cannot be handled in the same program.
Key Exam Points
- Study the code pages throughly
- For the Microsoft MCTS exam 70 536, study examples of code pages to gain a better understanding of this topic
- Work on your own
Related Terms
This article is based on the 2nd edition of the Microsoft .Net Framework Application Training Kit with the purpose to help 70-536 Exam takers to succeed. I constantly look for ways to improve the content. Please leave a comment about this article or drop me a message if you would like to see changes for this site.
