SQL - NCHAR() Function

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The SQL NCHAR() function is used to retrieve the Unicode value of a string. It accepts an integer value as a parameter and returns the Unicode value of it. If we pass an integer value that exceeds the given range, a NULL value will be returned.

In SQL, we can use the NCHAR() function with the column of a table by passing it as an argument along with the strings, and characters.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of the SQL NCHAR() function −

NCHAR(integer_value);

Parameters

• integer_value − This function accepts

Example

The following SELECT query uses the NumberCode to Unicode. So, here we will get the Unicode character of the number code 80.

SELECT NCHAR(80) AS NcharFunction;

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+---------------+
| NCharFunction |
+---------------+
|       P       |
+---------------+

Example

Following is an example of NCHAR() function with a variable and getting the Unicode character of the specified number code 120.

DECLARE @exp_string INT;  
SET @exp_string = 120;  
SELECT NCHAR(@exp_string);

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+---------------+
| NCharFunction |
+---------------+
|       X       |
+---------------+

Example

Following is the example of NCHAR() function in SQL, whatever string we have given it returns the first character of that string with the Unicode_value.

DECLARE @exp_string NCHAR(12) = 'Ramesh'; 
SELECT NCHAR(UNICODE(@exp_string)) AS FIRST_CHAR, UNICODE(@exp_string) AS UNICODE_VALUE; 

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+------------+---------------+
| FIRST_CHAR | UNICODE_VALUE |
+------- ----+---------------+
|       R    |     82        |
+------------+---------------+

Example

If we are giving any decimal value as 67.25 to get the Unicode character, So, here only the number code = 67 is considered and decimal value is ignored.

SELECT NCHAR(67.25) AS Ncharfunction;

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+---------------+
| NCharFunction |
+---------------+
|       C       |
+---------------+

Example

Following is an NCHAR Function to get the Unicode character of 180 which is the result of “180/2”: So, here 180/2 = 90. So it returns the Unicode character of 90.

SELECT NCHAR(180/2);

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+---------------+
| NCharFunction |
+---------------+
|       Z       |
+---------------+

Example

Following is an example of NCHAR() function with a variable and getting the Unicode character of the specified float value as 78.90 −

DECLARE @exp_string Float;  
SET @exp_string = 78.90;  
SELECT NCHAR(@exp_string);

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+---------------+
| NCharFunction |
+---------------+
|       N       |
+---------------+

Example

You can pass the table column as an argument to the NCHAR() function. Assume we have created a table with the name Customers using the CREATE statement as follows −

create table CUSTOMERS(
   ID INT NOT NULL, 
   NAME VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL, 
   AGE INT NOT NULL, 
   ADDRESS CHAR(25), 
   SALARY DECIMAL(10, 4), PRIMARY KEY(ID)
);

Now let's insert seven records into the customers table using the INSERT statement as follows:−

insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(1, 'Ramesh', 32, 'Ahmedabad', 2000.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(2, 'Khilan', 25, 'Delhi', 1500.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(3, 'kaushik', 23, 'Kota', 2000.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(4, 'Chaitali', 25, 'Mumbai', 6500.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(5, 'Hardik', 27, 'Bhopal', 8500.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(6, 'Komal', 22, 'MP', 4500.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(7, 'Muffy', 24, 'Indore', 10000.00);

The following SELECT query uses the NCHAR() function with the ID column of the above CUSTOMERS table −

SELECT ID, NAME, NCHAR(UNICODE(ID)) AS Unicode_ID FROM CUSTOMERS;
 

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+----+---------+----------+
| ID |   NAME  |UNICODE_ID|
+----+---------+----------+
| 1  | Ramesh  |     1    |
| 2  | Khilan  |     2    |
| 3  | kaushik |     3    |
| 4  | Chaitali|     4    |
| 5  | Hardik  |     5    |
| 6  | Komal   |     6    |
| 7  | Muffy   |     7    |
+----+---------+----------+

Example

The following SELECT query uses the NCHAR() function with the ID, NAME, AGE columns of the above CUSTOMERS table.

SELECT ID, NAME, AGE, NCHAR(UNICODE(ID)) As Unicode_ID, NCHAR(UNICODE(NAME)) AS Unicode_NAME, NCHAR(UNICODE(AGE)) AS Unicode_AGE FROM CUSTOMERS;

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+----+---------+------------+-------------+-------------+
| ID |   NAME  | UNICODE_ID | UNICODE_NAME| UNICODE_AGE |
+----+---------+------------+-------------+-------------+
| 1  | Ramesh  |     1      |     R       |      3      |
| 2  | Khilan  |     2      |     K       |      2      |
| 3  | kaushik |     3      |     k       |      2      |
| 4  | Chaitali|     4      |     C       |      2      |
| 5  | Hardik  |     5      |     H       |      2      |
| 6  | Komal   |     6      |     K       |      2      |
| 7  | Muffy   |     7      |     M       |      2      |
+----+---------+------------+-------------+-------------+