MS DOS Command: CHCP

Reference from Microsoft MS-DOS cmd help

Description

Displays the number of the active character set (code page). You can also use the CHCP command to change the active character set for all devices that support character set switching.

You must install the NLSFUNC program before you can use the CHCP command.

For an introduction to using character sets and the CHCP command, see the chapter "Customizing For International Use" in the MS-DOS User's Guide.

Tables of the character sets included with MS-DOS are shown in the appendix "Keyboard Layouts and Character Sets" in the MS-DOS User's Guide. For information about additional code pages included with MS-DOS 6.22, see the COUNTRY.TXT file (located in the directory that contains your MS-DOS files).

Syntax

CHCP [nnn]

To display the number of the active character set, use the following syntax:

CHCP

Parameters

nnn	Specifies the prepared system character set defined by the COUNTRY command in the CONFIG.SYS file. By default, MS-DOS provides character sets for the following countries and languages: 437 United States 850 Multilingual (Latin I) 852 Slavic (Latin II) 860 Portuguese 863 Canadian-French 865 Nordic

Additional countries and languages are supported by the EGA2.CPI and EGA3.CPI files. For more information, see the COUNTRY.TXT file, which is located in the directory that contains your MS-DOS files.

Related Commands

For more information about character sets, see the COUNTRY, NLSFUNC, and MODE (set device code pages)> command.

Remarks

Requirements for using the CHCP command

Before you can use the CHCP command, you must specify the location of the COUNTRY.SYS file by using the COUNTRY command and load the NLSFUNC program into memory.

Assigning a new character set

After you assign a new character set, any program you start uses that new character set. However, any program (not including COMMAND.COM) that you started before assigning the new character set will probably attempt to use the original character set.

Examples

To view the active character set setting, type the following command:

chcp

MS-DOS responds with a message similar to the following:

Active code page: 437

To change the active character set to 850 (Multilingual), type the following command:

chcp 850

MS-DOS alerts you if the specified character set has not been prepared for your system. The following error message appears:

Invalid code page

If a device (monitor, keyboard, printer) is not prepared for a character set, MS-DOS displays an error message in the following format:

Code page 850 not prepared for device nnn