SQL UNICODE Function Example | SQL Server UNICODE()

SQL UNICODE function is used for returning UNICODE value, i.e., an integer value for the first character of expression. The SQL UNICODE is one of the SQL String Function, which is used to return an integer value, as defined in Unicode standards.

If we specify the character string (more than one character), then a UNICODE function will return an integer value for the leftmost character of a character expression.

SQL UNICODE Function

One of the functions included in the T-SQL is the UNICODE() function.

You can use the UNICODE function with the SQL Server (and Azure) to return the Unicode value of a given character.

This function works similar to an ASCII() function, except that it returns a Unicode value.

The UNICODE() function returns the integer value (the Unicode value), for the first character of the input expression.

Syntax

SELECT UNICODE (Expression);

Parameters

Expression: An expression whose first character Unicode value has to be returned. It can be a nchar or varchar expression.

Example

Query 1

See the following query.

SELECT UNICODE (‘AppDividend.com’);

Output

65

Query 2

See the following query.

SELECT UNICODE (‘123SQL123’);

Output

49

For checking Unicode value for every character of expression, then the following query has to be written in PL/SQL oracle.

Query 3

See the following query.

DECLARE @i INT,	
	@str NCHAR(11);
SET @i=1;
SET @str= ‘APPDIVIDEND’;

While @i <= LEN(@str)
	BEGIN
		SELECT SUBSTRING (@str, @i, 1) AS [Nchar_Value],
			UNICODE (SUBSTRING (@str, @i, 1)) AS [UNICODE_VALUE]
		SET @i=@i+1;
	END;

See the output.

Nchar_Value	UNICODE_VALUE
A	65
P	80
P	80
D	68
I	73
V	86
I	73
D	68
E	69
N	78
D	68

 

Let’s apply the UNICODE function to a table.

Table: Employee

Emp_id	Emp_name	City	State	Salary
101	Rohit	Patna	Bihar	30000
201	Shivam	Jalandhar	Punjab	20000
301	Karan	Allahabad	Uttar Pradesh	40000
401	Suraj	Kolkata	West Bengal	60000
501	Akash	Vizag	Andhra Pradesh	70000

 

Suppose we want to print the Unicode value of Emp_name from the Employee table. Then the following query has to be written.

Query 4

Select Emp_name, UNICODE (Emp_name) AS UNICODE_VALUE from EMPLOYEE;

Output

Emp_name	UNICODE_VALUE
Rohit	82
Shivam	83
Karan	75
Suraj	83
Akash	65

 

Here, you can see that UNICODE_VALUE of every Employee name is displayed using the above query.

Unicode vs. ASCII

SQL UNICODE() function works similar to the ASCII() function, but with the exception that it returns the Unicode value as opposed to the ASCII value.

Note that, for the first 128 characters, the ASCII and Unicode values are the same, and therefore, these two functions will produce the same results for the first 128 characters.

However, the UNICODE() function will work with the much larger range of characters due to the 128 character limitation of an ASCII standard.

Here’s the example of the ASCII() and UNICODE() functions side by side.

See the following query.

SELECT UNICODE('A') AS Unicode, ASCII('A') AS ASCII;

See the output.

	Unicode	ASCII
1	65	65

 

So we can see that they returned the same result in this case. This is due to the fact that the letter A falls within the range of ASCII codes (and therefore is also included within the Unicode range).

Finally, SQL UNICODE Function Example | SQL Server UNICODE() Tutorial is over.

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