MySQL ORD() Function

The MySQL ORD() function returns the character code for leftmost character of the argument.

If the leftmost character of the argument is a multibyte character, this function returns the code for that character, calculated from the numeric values of its constituent bytes using formula given below:

  (1st byte code)
+ (2nd byte code * 256)
+ (3rd byte code * 256^2) ...

If the leftmost character of the argument is not a multibyte character, this function returns the same value as the ASCII() function.

Syntax

ORD(string)

Parameters

Return Value

Returns the code of the leftmost character in a string.

Example 1:

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

mysql> SELECT ORD('A');
Result: 65

mysql> SELECT ORD(1);
Result: 49

mysql> SELECT ORD('AlphaCodingSkills.com');
Result: 65

mysql> SELECT ORD(123);
Result: 49

mysql> SELECT ORD('@gmail.com');
Result: 64

Example 2:

Consider a database table called Employee with the following records:

In the query below, the ORD() function is used to get the character code for leftmost character of the Name column value.

SELECT *, ORD(Name) AS ORD_Val FROM Employee;

This will produce the result as shown below: