How to use NCHAR in Sql Server

Intro

SQL Server provides the NCHAR function to return a unicode character from the number code. In this article, we will learn how to use NCHAR in SQL Server.

The Syntax

The basic syntax of a NCHAR is as follows:

SELECT NCHAR(num_code);

• num_code: The number code in the Unicode standard to return the character for.

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/.

Basic Example

A good list of unicode numbers is on the Wikipedia page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unicode_characters.

To use the function, let's try to get the character for number code 474.

select nchar(474) as unicode;

Scroll down the list on Wikipedia, and we can try the character for code 934.

select nchar(934) as unicode;