Home > Articles > Transact SQL Programming Articles

Using the Transact SQL ASCII and Char Functions

The SQL Server Transact SQL functions ASCII and CHAR can be used to determine the character code of an ASCII character and . As such the functions are useful for when writing SQL statements to encode or decode text strings. The functions are similar to the Chr and Asc functions within VBScript and Visual Basic 6.0

ASCII

The ASCII function can be used to return the character code of a specific ASCII character. The following Transact SQL statement returns the ASCII character code for the letter 'a', which is 97:

select ascii('a') as CharacterCode

Note that if a string of more than one characters is supplied as the ASCII function's argument, only the corresponding character code of the first character is returned.

CHAR

The CHAR function can be used to return the character corresponding to a specific ASCII code. The following Transact SQL statement returns the ASCII character corresponding to the code of 120, which is 'x':

select char(120) as ASCIICharacter

Useful Links

• The SQL Documentation Tool creates technical documentation for Microsoft SQL Server databases. A free trial version is available for download.

• The ASP Documentation Tool can automatically document your ASP (VBScript and JScript) websites and SQL Server/Microsoft Access databases. An ASP.NET Documentation Tool is also available!

Useful Development Tools

SQL Documentation Tool

The SQL Documentation Tool creates technical documentation for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and 2000 databases. Technical documentation is created in HTML and HTML Help formats. The HTML Help format documentation is fully searchable and cross referenced. The SQL Documentation Tool documents SQL Server Tables, Views, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Table Relationships and Dependencies.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (10.3Mb ZIP file).

ASP Documentation Tool™

Automatically creates developer documentation for ASP 2.0 and 3.0 web applications written in VBScript and JScript. Documentation for Microsoft Access, SQL Server 7/2000 databases and Visual Basic 6.0 components associated with the web application can also be incorporated into the reports. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (5.2Mb ZIP file).

.NET Documentation Tool

Automatically creates technical documentation for .NET Framework Windows and ASP.NET applications written in C# or VB.NET and SQL Server 7/2000/2005 or Microsoft Access databases associated with the application. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (5Mb ZIP file).

VB Documentation Tool

The VB Documentation Tool creates technical documentation for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 projects. Technical documentation is created in HTML and HTML Help formats. The HTML Help format documentation is fully searchable and cross referenced.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (1Mb ZIP file).

Indexing Service Companion

The Indexing Service Companion is a Windows application that extends the functionality of the Microsoft Windows Indexing Service so that it is able to index content from remote websites and also from ODBC databases. As such it can be used as a low cost alternative to Sharepoint Portal Search Services.

Try Sample Search Facility.     Download Trial Version (1.7Mb ZIP file).

The Website Utility

The Website Utility examines websites for errors and areas that need to be optimised for search engines by using a built in web crawling engine. Errors checked for include broken or moved hyperlinks, missing page titles and missing meta tags. It also generates HTML for use in creating website site maps (table of contents pages - like this one), and is able to create both client-side JavaScript Search Engines and server-side ASP Search Engines for a website.

View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (3Mb ZIP file).

PHP Documentation Tool™

Automatically creates developer documentation for PHP web applications. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (1.0Mb ZIP file).