Is there a way to change the console code page from within Python?

Question

When I type

chcp 65001

in the command prompt it changes the active code page. How do I accomplish the same thing from within Python itself? For example, every time I run my .py program, it should automatically change the code page to 65001.

Answer 1

The chcp command uses the SetConsoleCP and SetConsoleOutputCP Windows API calls to perform its job. You can invoke those calls directly via ctypes:

import ctypes
import ctypes.wintypes


# helper
def _errcheck_bool(retval, func, args):
    if retval:
        return
    raise ctypes.WinError()


# define SetConsoleCP
SetConsoleCP = ctypes.windll.kernel32.SetConsoleCP
SetConsoleCP.argtypes = (ctypes.wintypes.UINT,)
SetConsoleCP.restype = ctypes.wintypes.BOOL
SetConsoleCP.errcheck = _errcheck_bool


# define SetConsoleOutputCP
SetConsoleOutputCP = ctypes.windll.kernel32.SetConsoleOutputCP
SetConsoleOutputCP.argtypes = (ctypes.wintypes.UINT,)
SetConsoleOutputCP.restype = ctypes.wintypes.BOOL
SetConsoleOutputCP.errcheck = _errcheck_bool


# invoke
SetConsoleCP(65001)
SetConsoleOutputCP(65001)