What is managed code and managed data?

Managed code is code that is written to target the services of the common language runtime (see What is the Common Language Runtime?). In order to target these services, the code must provide a minimum level of information (metadata) to the runtime. All C#, Visual Basic .NET, and JScript .NET code is managed by default. Visual Studio .NET C++ code is not managed by default, but the compiler can produce managed code by specifying a command-line switch (/CLR).