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CHAR (Transact-SQL) | Returns the single-byte character with the specified integer code, as defined by the character set and encoding of the default collation of the current database. | markingmyname | maghan | randolphwest | 05/21/2024 | sql | t-sql | reference |
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| >=aps-pdw-2016 || =azuresqldb-current || =azure-sqldw-latest || >=sql-server-2016 || >=sql-server-linux-2017 || =azuresqldb-mi-current || =fabric |
[!INCLUDE sql-asdb-asdbmi-asa-pdw-fabricse-fabricdw]
Returns the single-byte character with the specified integer code, as defined by the character set and encoding of the default collation of the current database.
:::image type="icon" source="../../includes/media/topic-link-icon.svg" border="false"::: Transact-SQL syntax conventions
CHAR ( integer_expression ) An integer from 0 through 255. CHAR returns a NULL value for integer expressions outside this input range or not representing a complete character.
CHAR also returns a NULL value when the character exceeds the length of the return type.
Many common character sets share ASCII as a subset and returns the same character for integer values in the range 0 through 127.
Note
Some character sets, such as Unicode and Shift Japanese Industrial Standards, include characters that can be represented in a single-byte coding scheme, but require multibyte encoding. For more information on character sets, see Single-Byte and Multibyte Character Sets.
char(1)
Use CHAR to insert control characters into character strings. This table shows some frequently used control characters.
| Control character | Value |
|---|---|
| Tab | char(9) |
| Space | char(32) |
| Line feed | char(10) |
| Carriage return | char(13) |
This example prints the ASCII value and character for each character in the string New Moon.
SET TEXTSIZE 0; -- Create variables for the character string and for the current-- position in the string. DECLARE @position INT, @string CHAR(8); -- Initialize the current position and the string variables.SET @position =1; SET @string ='New Moon'; WHILE @position <= DATALENGTH(@string) BEGINSELECT ASCII(SUBSTRING(@string, @position, 1)), CHAR(ASCII(SUBSTRING(@string, @position, 1))) SET @position = @position +1 END; GO[!INCLUDE ssResult]
----------- - 78 N ----------- - 101 e ----------- - 119 w ----------- - 32 ----------- - 77 M ----------- - 111 o ----------- - 111 o ----------- - 110 n This example uses CHAR(13) to print the name and e-mail address of an employee on separate lines, when the query returns its results as text. This example uses the [!INCLUDE ssSampleDBnormal] database.
SELECTp.FirstName+''+p.LastName+CHAR(13) +pe.EmailAddressFROMPerson.Person p INNER JOINPerson.EmailAddress pe ONp.BusinessEntityID=pe.BusinessEntityIDANDp.BusinessEntityID=1; GO[!INCLUDE ssResult]
Ken Sanchez ken0@adventure-works.com This example assumes an ASCII character set. It returns the character value for six different ASCII character number values.
SELECTCHAR(65) AS [65], CHAR(66) AS [66], CHAR(97) AS [97], CHAR(98) AS [98], CHAR(49) AS [49], CHAR(50) AS [50];[!INCLUDE ssResult]
65 66 97 98 49 50 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- A B a b 1 2 This example uses CHAR(13) to return information from sys.databases on separate lines, when the query returns its results as text.
SELECT name, 'was created on ', create_date, CHAR(13), name, 'is currently ', state_desc FROMsys.databases; GO[!INCLUDE ssResult]
name create_date name state_desc -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- master was created on 2003-04-08 09:13:36.390 master is currently ONLINE tempdb was created on 2014-01-10 17:24:24.023 tempdb is currently ONLINE AdventureWorksPDW2012 was created on 2014-05-07 09:05:07.083 AdventureWorksPDW2012 is currently ONLINE This example uses the integer and hex values in the valid range for ASCII. The CHAR function is able to output the single-byte Japanese character.
SELECTCHAR(188) AS single_byte_representing_complete_character, CHAR(0xBC) AS single_byte_representing_complete_character; GO[!INCLUDE ssResult]
single_byte_representing_complete_character single_byte_representing_complete_character ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ｼ ｼ This example uses integer and hex values in the valid range for Extended ASCII. However, the CHAR function returns NULL because the parameter represents only the first byte of a multibyte character. A char(2) double-byte character can't be partially represented nor divided without some conversion operation. The individual bytes of a double-byte character don't generally represent valid char(1) values.
SELECTCHAR(129) AS first_byte_of_double_byte_character, CHAR(0x81) AS first_byte_of_double_byte_character; GO[!INCLUDE ssResult]
first_byte_of_double_byte_character first_byte_of_double_byte_character ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- NULL NULL This example accepts the binary value as an encoded multibyte character consistent with the default codepage of the current database, subject to validation. Character conversion is more broadly supported and might be an alternative to working with encoding at a lower level.
CREATE DATABASE [multibyte-char-context] COLLATE Japanese_CI_AI; GO USE [multibyte-char-context]; GO SELECT NCHAR(0x266A) AS [eighth-note], CONVERT(CHAR(2), 0x81F4) AS [context-dependent-convert], CAST(0x81F4 ASCHAR(2)) AS [context-dependent-cast];[!INCLUDE ssResult]
eighth-note context-dependent-convert context-dependent-cast ----------- ------------------------- ---------------------- ♪ ♪ ♪ This example highlights the distinction the Unicode standard makes between a character's code point and the code unit sequence under a given encoding form. The binary code assigned to a character in a classic character set is its only numeric identifier.
In contrast, the UTF-8 byte sequence associated with a character is an algorithmic encoding of its assigned numeric identifier: the code point. UTF-8 char and UTF-16 nchar are different encoding forms using 8-bit and 16-bit code units, of the same character set: the Unicode Character Database.
;WITH uni (c) AS ( -- BMP characterSELECT NCHAR(9835) UNION ALL-- non-BMP supplementary character or, under downlevel collation, NULLSELECT NCHAR(127925) ), enc (u16c, u8c) AS (SELECT c, CONVERT(VARCHAR(4), c COLLATE Latin1_General_100_CI_AI_SC_UTF8) FROM uni) SELECT u16c AS [Music note], u8c AS [Music note (UTF-8)], UNICODE(u16c) AS [Code Point], CONVERT(VARBINARY(4), u16c) AS [UTF-16LE bytes], CONVERT(VARBINARY(4), u8c) AS [UTF-8 bytes] FROM enc;[!INCLUDE ssResult] These results are generated under a _SC collation with supplementary character support.
| Music note | Music note (UTF-8) | Code Point | UTF-16LE bytes | UTF-8 bytes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ♫ | ♫ | 9835 | 0x6B26 | 0xE299AB |
| 🎵 | 🎵 | 127925 | 0x3CD8B5DF | 0xF09F8EB5 |
