--- description: "CHAR (Transact-SQL)" title: "CHAR (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs" ms.custom: "" ms.date: "10/19/2018" ms.prod: sql ms.prod_service: "database-engine, sql-database, sql-data-warehouse, pdw" ms.reviewer: "" ms.technology: t-sql ms.topic: reference f1_keywords: - "char_TSQL" - "char" dev_langs: - "TSQL" helpviewer_keywords: - "converting int ASCII 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 author: cawrites ms.author: chadam monikerRange: ">=aps-pdw-2016||=azuresqldb-current||=azure-sqldw-latest||>=sql-server-2016||>=sql-server-linux-2017||=azuresqldb-mi-current" --- # CHAR (Transact-SQL) [!INCLUDE [sql-asdb-asdbmi-asa-pdw](../../includes/applies-to-version/sql-asdb-asdbmi-asa-pdw.md)] This function converts an **int** ASCII code to a character value. ![Topic link icon](../../database-engine/configure-windows/media/topic-link.gif "Topic link icon") [Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions](../../t-sql/language-elements/transact-sql-syntax-conventions-transact-sql.md) ## Syntax ```syntaxsql CHAR ( integer_expression ) ``` [!INCLUDE[sql-server-tsql-previous-offline-documentation](../../includes/sql-server-tsql-previous-offline-documentation.md)] ## Arguments *integer_expression* An integer from 0 through 255. `CHAR` returns a `NULL` value for integer expressions outside this range, or when then integer expresses only the first byte of a double-byte character. > [!NOTE] > Some non-European character sets, such as [Shift Japanese Industrial Standards](https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shift_JIS), include characters than can be represented in a single-byte coding scheme, but require multibyte encoding. For more information on character sets, refer to [Single-Byte and Multibyte Character Sets](/cpp/c-runtime-library/single-byte-and-multibyte-character-sets). ## 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`. ```sql 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 ``` [!INCLUDE[ssResult](../../includes/ssresult-md.md)] ``` ----------- - 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 [!INCLUDE[ssSampleDBnormal](../../includes/sssampledbnormal-md.md)] database. ```sql SELECT p.FirstName + ' ' + p.LastName, + CHAR(13) + pe.EmailAddress FROM Person.Person p INNER JOIN Person.EmailAddress pe ON p.BusinessEntityID = pe.BusinessEntityID AND p.BusinessEntityID = 1; GO ``` [!INCLUDE[ssResult](../../includes/ssresult-md.md)] ``` Ken Sanchez ken0@adventure-works.com (1 row(s) affected) ``` ### 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. ```sql 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]; ``` [!INCLUDE[ssResult](../../includes/ssresult-md.md)] ``` 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. ```sql SELECT name, 'was created on ', create_date, CHAR(13), name, 'is currently ', state_desc FROM sys.databases; GO ``` [!INCLUDE[ssResult](../../includes/ssresult-md.md)] ``` 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 ``` ### E. Using CHAR to return single-byte characters This example uses the integer and hex values in the valid range for ASCII. The CHAR function is able to output the single-byte Japanese character. ```sql SELECT CHAR(188) AS single_byte_representing_complete_character, CHAR(0xBC) AS single_byte_representing_complete_character; GO ``` [!INCLUDE[ssResult](../../includes/ssresult-md.md)] ``` single_byte_representing_complete_character single_byte_representing_complete_character ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ｼ ｼ ``` ### F. Using CHAR to return multibyte characters This example uses the an integer and hex values in the valid range for ASCII. However, the CHAR function returns NULL because the parameter represents only the first byte of a multibyte character. ```sql SELECT CHAR(129) AS first_byte_of_double_byte_character, CHAR(0x81) AS first_byte_of_double_byte_character; GO ``` [!INCLUDE[ssResult](../../includes/ssresult-md.md)] ``` first_byte_of_double_byte_character first_byte_of_double_byte_character ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- NULL NULL ``` ## See also [ASCII (Transact-SQL)](../../t-sql/functions/ascii-transact-sql.md) [NCHAR (Transact-SQL)](../../t-sql/functions/nchar-transact-sql.md) [UNICODE (Transact-SQL)](../../t-sql/functions/unicode-transact-sql.md) [+ (String Concatenation) (Transact-SQL)](../../t-sql/language-elements/string-concatenation-transact-sql.md) [String Functions (Transact-SQL)](../../t-sql/functions/string-functions-transact-sql.md)