Chapter 2: Transact-SQL Functions

char

Description

Returns the character equivalent of an integer.

Syntax

char(integer_expr)

Parameters

integer_expr: is any integer (tinyint, smallint, or int) column name, variable, or constant expression between 0 and 255.

Examples

Example 1

select char(42)

- 
*

Example 2

select xxx = char(65)

xxx
--- 
A

Usage

char, a string function, converts a single-byte integer value to a character value (char is usually used as the inverse of ascii).
char returns a char datatype. If the resulting value is the first byte of a multibyte character, the character may be undefined.
If char_expr is NULL, returns NULL.

Reformatting output with char

You can use concatenation and char values to add tabs or carriage returns to reformat output. char(10) converts to a return; char(9) converts to a tab. For example:

/* just a space */
select title_id +  " " + title from titles where title_id = "T67061"
/* a return */
select title_id + char(10) + title from titles where title_id = "T67061"
/* a tab */
select title_id + char(9) + title from titles where title_id = "T67061"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
T67061 Programming with Curses
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
T67061

Programming with Curses
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
T67061      Programming with Curses

Standards

ANSI SQL – Compliance level: Transact-SQL extension.

Permissions

Any user can execute char.