Code page 936 (IBM)

Code page 936 (IBM), also known as IBM 936, is a code page used by IBM to encode Simplified Chinese characters. It is primarily intended for use on IBM PC systems and related platforms. It's a double-byte character set (DBCS), meaning that it uses one or two bytes to represent each character. Single-byte values largely mirror ASCII for English characters and basic symbols. Double-byte sequences are then used to represent the vast array of Simplified Chinese characters, as well as some punctuation and symbols specific to the Chinese language.

Code page 936 is closely related to, and often used interchangeably with, GB 2312-80, the official character set standard of mainland China. However, while aiming for compatibility, IBM 936 may contain some IBM-specific extensions or differences from the strict GB 2312-80 standard.

This code page is important for correctly displaying and processing Simplified Chinese text on systems that are configured to use it. It's critical for applications that deal with Simplified Chinese to ensure that data is encoded and decoded using the correct code page to avoid character corruption or display errors. Over time, newer encoding standards like Unicode (specifically UTF-8) have become more prevalent and have reduced the reliance on code page 936, offering better internationalization and support for a wider range of characters.