SQL Server UNICODE() Function

The SQL Server (Transact-SQL) UNICODE() function returns the numeric unicode code point corresponding to the first character of the specified string.

Syntax

UNICODE(character)

Parameters

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

Return Value

Returns the unicode code point of a character.

Example 1:

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

SELECT UNICODE('A');
Result: 65

SELECT UNICODE(1);
Result: 49

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

SELECT UNICODE(123);
Result: 49

SELECT UNICODE('@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 UNICODE() function is used to get the unicode code point of the first character of Name column value of Employee table.

SELECT *, UNICODE(Name) AS UNICODE_Val FROM Employee;

This will produce the result as shown below:

EmpID	Name	City	UNICODE_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