UNICODE (Transact-SQL)

**APPLIES TO:** SQL Server (starting with 2008) Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Data Warehouse Parallel Data Warehouse

Returns the integer value, as defined by the Unicode standard, for the first character of the input expression.

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

UNICODE ( 'ncharacter_expression' )  

Arguments

’ ncharacter_expression ’
Is an nchar or nvarchar expression.

Return Types

int

Remarks

In versions of SQL Server earlier than SQL Server SQL Server 2012 (11.x) and in SQL Server SQL Server 2012 (11.x) Azure SQL Database the UNICODE function returns a UCS-2 codepoint in the range 0 through 0xFFFF. Starting with SQL Server SQL Server 2012 (11.x) Azure SQL Database SQL Server 2012 (11.x) when using Supplementary Character (SC) enabled collations, UNICODE returns a UTF-16 codepoint in the range 0 through 0x10FFFF.

Examples

A. Using UNICODE and the NCHAR function

The following example uses the UNICODE and NCHAR functions to print the UNICODE value of the first character of the Åkergatan 24-character string, and to print the actual first character, Å.

DECLARE @nstring nchar(12);  
SET @nstring = N'Åkergatan 24';  
SELECT UNICODE(@nstring), NCHAR(UNICODE(@nstring));  

Here is the result set.

----------- -   
197         Å  

B. Using SUBSTRING, UNICODE, and CONVERT

The following example uses the SUBSTRING, UNICODE, and CONVERT functions to print the character number, the Unicode character, and the UNICODE value of each of the characters in the string Åkergatan 24.

-- The @position variable holds the position of the character currently  
-- being processed. The @nstring variable is the Unicode character   
-- string to process.  
DECLARE @position int, @nstring nchar(12);  
-- Initialize the current position variable to the first character in   
-- the string.  
SET @position = 1;  
-- Initialize the character string variable to the string to process.   
-- Notice that there is an N before the start of the string, which   
-- indicates that the data following the N is Unicode data.  
SET @nstring = N'Åkergatan 24';  
-- Print the character number of the position of the string you are at,   
-- the actual Unicode character you are processing, and the UNICODE   
-- value for this particular character.  
PRINT 'Character #' + ' ' + 'Unicode Character' + ' ' + 'UNICODE Value';  
WHILE @position <= DATALENGTH(@nstring)  
-- While these are still characters in the character string,  
   BEGIN;  
   SELECT @position,   
      CONVERT(char(17), SUBSTRING(@nstring, @position, 1)),  
      UNICODE(SUBSTRING(@nstring, @position, 1));  
   SELECT @position = @position + 1;  
   END;  

Here is the result set.

Character # Unicode Character UNICODE Value  
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
1           Å                 197           
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
2           k                 107           
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
3           e                 101           
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
4           r                 114           
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
5           g                 103           
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
6           a                 97            
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
7           t                 116           
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
8           a                 97            
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
9           n                 110           
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
10                            32            
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
11          2                 50            
  
----------- ----------------- -----------   
12          4                 52  

See Also

ASCII (Transact-SQL)
CHAR (Transact-SQL)
NCHAR (Transact-SQL)
String Functions (Transact-SQL)
Collation and Unicode Support