In MySQL, the ASCII() function returns the numeric ASCII code of the leftmost character of a given string. You provide the string as an argument.

This article contains examples of usage.

Syntax

The syntax goes like this:

ASCII(str)

Where str is the string that you want the ASCII code of the leftmost character from.

Example 1 – Basic Usage

Here’s an example to demonstrate.

SELECT ASCII('MySQL');

Result:

+----------------+
| ASCII('MySQL') |
+----------------+
|             77 |
+----------------+

So we can see that the ASCII code for the letter M is 77.

To be absolutely clear, let’s get the ASCII code for each letter:

SELECT 
  ASCII('M'),
  ASCII('y'),
  ASCII('S'),
  ASCII('Q'),
  ASCII('L');

Result:

+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
| ASCII('M') | ASCII('y') | ASCII('S') | ASCII('Q') | ASCII('L') |
+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
|         77 |        121 |         83 |         81 |         76 |
+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+

Example 2 – Case Sensitivity

Uppercase characters have a different ASCII code to their lowercase counterparts. Example:

SELECT 
  ASCII('m'),
  ASCII('M');

Result:

+------------+------------+
| ASCII('m') | ASCII('M') |
+------------+------------+
|        109 |         77 |
+------------+------------+

Example 3 – A Database Example

Here’s an example of using the ASCII() function in a database query.

USE Music;
SELECT 
  AlbumName, 
  ASCII(AlbumName) AS 'ASCII code of leftmost character'
FROM Albums
LIMIT 10;

Result:

+-------------------------+----------------------------------+
| AlbumName               | ASCII code of leftmost character |
+-------------------------+----------------------------------+
| Powerslave              |                               80 |
| Powerage                |                               80 |
| Singing Down the Lane   |                               83 |
| Ziltoid the Omniscient  |                               90 |
| Casualties of Cool      |                               67 |
| Epicloud                |                               69 |
| Somewhere in Time       |                               83 |
| Piece of Mind           |                               80 |
| Killers                 |                               75 |
| No Prayer for the Dying |                               78 |
+-------------------------+----------------------------------+

Example 4 – Rightmost Character

In this example I return the ASCII code of the rightmost character.

USE Music;
SELECT 
  AlbumName,
  RIGHT(AlbumName, 1) 'Rightmost character',
  ASCII(RIGHT(AlbumName, 1)) 'ASCII code'
FROM Albums
LIMIT 10;

Result:

+-------------------------+---------------------+------------+
| AlbumName               | Rightmost character | ASCII code |
+-------------------------+---------------------+------------+
| Powerslave              | e                   |        101 |
| Powerage                | e                   |        101 |
| Singing Down the Lane   | e                   |        101 |
| Ziltoid the Omniscient  | t                   |        116 |
| Casualties of Cool      | l                   |        108 |
| Epicloud                | d                   |        100 |
| Somewhere in Time       | e                   |        101 |
| Piece of Mind           | d                   |        100 |
| Killers                 | s                   |        115 |
| No Prayer for the Dying | g                   |        103 |
+-------------------------+---------------------+------------+