How to use ASCII in Sql Server

Intro

The SQL Server ASCII function takes in a character and returns the ASCII value. If you pass in a unicode character or rune, the function will return the unicode value.

The Syntax

The basic syntax of a ASCII is as follows:

SELECT ascii(string);

Getting Setup

For this, we will be using docker. This is recommended for more than just using SQL Server. To find how to install docker go here: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/

Now create a file called docker-compose.yml and add the following.

version: "3.9"
services:
  db:
    image: "mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server"
    ports: 
      - 1433:1433
    environment:
        SA_PASSWORD: "Your_password123"
        ACCEPT_EULA: "Y"

Open a terminal and go to the folder the file is located. Then run the following.

docker-compose up

If you are looking for another good reference, you can check here: https://docs.docker.com/samples/aspnet-mssql-compose/.

Example

In the basic example, we pass in an ascii character and the function will return the ascii code corresponding to that character.

You can see a reference of ascii characters here: https://web.archive.org/web/20220519180720/https://www.ascii-code.com/

SELECT ascii('Z');

If we pass a string instead, postgresql will only return the ascii value of the first character.

SELECT ascii('testing');

This is the same value if we only pass the 't' character.

SELECT ascii('t');

And finally, we can pass a unicode character to get a unicode value.

You can find a list of unicode values here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unicode_characters

SELECT ascii('⏰');