CHAR Function

Syntax

CHAR(N,... [USING charset_name])

Description

CHAR() interprets each argument as an INT and returns a string consisting of the characters given by the code values of those integers. NULL values are skipped. By default, CHAR() returns a binary string. To produce a string in a given character set, use the optional USING clause:

SELECT CHARSET(CHAR(0x65)), CHARSET(CHAR(0x65 USING utf8));
+---------------------+--------------------------------+
| CHARSET(CHAR(0x65)) | CHARSET(CHAR(0x65 USING utf8)) |
+---------------------+--------------------------------+
| binary              | utf8                           |
+---------------------+--------------------------------+

If USING is given and the result string is illegal for the given character set, a warning is issued. Also, if strict SQL mode is enabled, the result from CHAR() becomes NULL.

Examples

SELECT CHAR(77,97,114,'105',97,'68',66);
+----------------------------------+
| CHAR(77,97,114,'105',97,'68',66) |
+----------------------------------+
| MariaDB                          |
+----------------------------------+

SELECT CHAR(77,77.3,'77.3');
+----------------------+
| CHAR(77,77.3,'77.3') |
+----------------------+
| MMM                  |
+----------------------+
1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

Warning (Code 1292): Truncated incorrect INTEGER value: '77.3'

See Also

• Character Sets and Collations
• ASCII() - Return ASCII value of first character
• ORD() - Return value for character in single or multi-byte character sets
• CHR - Similar, Oracle-compatible, function