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title CHAR (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs
ms.custom
ms.date 07/24/2017
ms.prod sql
ms.prod_service database-engine, sql-database, sql-data-warehouse, pdw
ms.reviewer
ms.suite sql
ms.technology t-sql
ms.tgt_pltfrm
ms.topic language-reference
f1_keywords
char_TSQL
char
dev_langs
TSQL
helpviewer_keywords
converting int ACSII code to character
control characters
tab
ASCII conversions
CHAR function
carriage return
inserting control characters
characters [SQL Server], control
line feed
printing ASCII values
ms.assetid 955afe94-539c-465d-af22-16ec45da432a
caps.latest.revision 39
author MashaMSFT
ms.author mathoma
manager craigg
monikerRange >=aps-pdw-2016||=azuresqldb-current||=azure-sqldw-latest||>=sql-server-2016||=sqlallproducts-allversions||>=sql-server-linux-2017||=azuresqldb-mi-current

CHAR (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2008-all-md]

This function converts an int ASCII code to a character value.

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

CHAR ( integer_expression )

Arguments

integer_expression
An integer from 0 through 255. CHAR returns a NULL value for integer expressions outside this range.

Return types

char(1)

Remarks

Use CHAR to insert control characters into character strings. This table shows some frequently used control characters.

Control character Value
Tab char(9)
Line feed char(10)
Carriage return char(13)

Examples

A. Using ASCII and CHAR to print ASCII values from a string

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)  
   BEGIN  
   SELECT ASCII(SUBSTRING(@string, @position, 1)),   
      CHAR(ASCII(SUBSTRING(@string, @position, 1)))  
   SET @position = @position + 1  
   END;  
GO

[!INCLUDEssResult]

----------- -
78          N  
----------- -  
101         e  
----------- -  
119         w  
----------- -  
32  
----------- -  
77          M  
----------- -  
111         o  
----------- -  
111         o  
----------- - 
110         n

B. Using CHAR to insert a control character

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 [!INCLUDEssSampleDBnormal] database.

SELECT p.FirstName + ' ' + p.LastName, + CHAR(13)  + pe.EmailAddress   
FROM Person.Person p JOIN Person.EmailAddress pe  
ON p.BusinessEntityID = pe.BusinessEntityID  
AND p.BusinessEntityID = 1;  
GO

[!INCLUDEssResult]

Ken Sanchez
ken0@adventure-works.com
  
(1 row(s) affected)

Examples: [!INCLUDEssSDWfull] and [!INCLUDEssPDW]

C. Using ASCII and CHAR to print ASCII values from a string

This example assumes an ASCII character set. It returns the character value for six different ASCII character number values.

SELECT CHAR(65) AS [65], CHAR(66) AS [66],   
CHAR(97) AS [97], CHAR(98) AS [98],   
CHAR(49) AS [49], CHAR(50) AS [50];

[!INCLUDEssResult]

65   66   97   98   49   50  
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----  
A    B    a    b    1    2

D. Using CHAR to insert a control character

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   
FROM sys.databases;  
GO

[!INCLUDEssResult]

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

See also

ASCII (Transact-SQL)
NCHAR (Transact-SQL)
UNICODE (Transact-SQL)
+ (String Concatenation) (Transact-SQL)
String Functions (Transact-SQL)