SQL Server ASCII() Function

The SQL Server (Transact-SQL) ASCII() function returns the ASCII value of specified character. If a string is entered, the function returns the ASCII value for the first character of the string only.

Syntax

ASCII(character)

Parameters

character Required. Specify the character to return the ASCII value for. If more than one character is entered, the function will only return the value for the first character.

Return Value

Returns the ASCII value of a character.

Example 1:

The example below shows the usage of ASCII() function.

SELECT ASCII('A');
Result: 65

SELECT ASCII(1);
Result: 49

SELECT ASCII('AlphaCodingSkills.com');
Result: 65

SELECT ASCII(123);
Result: 49

SELECT ASCII('@gmail.com');
Result: 64

Example 2:

Consider a database table called Employee with the following records:

EmpID	Name	City
1	John	London
2	Marry	New York
3	Jo	Paris
4	Kim	Amsterdam
5	Ramesh	New Delhi
6	Huang	Beijing

In the query below, the ASCII() function is used to get the ASCII value of first character of Name column value of Employee table.

SELECT *, ASCII(Name) AS ASCII_Val FROM Employee;

This will produce the result as shown below:

EmpID	Name	City	ASCII_Val
1	John	London	74
2	Marry	New York	77
3	Jo	Paris	74
4	Kim	Amsterdam	75
5	Ramesh	New Delhi	82
6	Huang	Beijing	72

❮ SQL Server Functions