SQL NCHAR Function

The SQL NCHAR is one of the SQL String Function, which is used to return the Unicode character at the specified integer value, as defined in Unicode standards. In this article we will show you, How to use or write the NCHAR in SQL Server with example.

SQL NCHAR Function Syntax

The basic syntax behind this SQL Server UNICODE Function is as shown below:

SELECT NCHAR (Integer_Expression)
FROM [Source]

Integer_Expression: Please specify the valid numeric value. If the value is out of the range (something like: 123456) then the function will return NULL as output.

SQL NCHAR Function Example 1

The SQL Server NCHAR Function is used to return the Unicode character of the given expression or integer value. The following query may show you the multiple ways to use this function.

T-SQL CODE

DECLARE @Str1 NCHAR(25)
DECLARE @Str2 NCHAR(5)

-- Initialize the variables.  
SET @Str1 = 'è'
SET @Str2 = 'ë'

SELECT UNICODE(@Str1) AS Result1,
       NCHAR(UNICODE(@Str1)) AS Result2,
       UNICODE(@Str2) AS Result3,
      NCHAR(UNICODE(@Str2)) AS Result4; 

SELECT NCHAR(UNICODE('âëz')) AS Result5;  

SELECT NCHAR(UNICODE('Å28')) AS Result6;

OUTPUT

ANALYSIS

Below lines of code is used to declare two variables of type NCHAR. Next, we assigning the string data è and ë

DECLARE @Str1 NCHAR(25)
DECLARE @Str2 NCHAR(5)

SET @Str1 = 'è'
SET @Str2 = 'ë'

From the below statement you can see, we are finding the UNICODE value of è, ë and applying NCHAR function on that Unicode values. We also assigned new names to the result as ‘Result1’ to ‘Result4’ using ALIAS Column.

SELECT UNICODE(@Str1) AS Result1, 
       NCHAR(UNICODE(@Str1)) AS Result2, 
       UNICODE(@Str2) AS Result3, 
       NCHAR(UNICODE(@Str2)) AS Result4;

In the next line, We used the NCHAR function on group of Ncharacters (word). Here, UNICODE function will return the Unicode value of the leftmost character (i.e., â) and that should be 226. Next, NCHAR function will return the Character at 226, and that is â

SELECT NCHAR(UNICODE('âëz')) AS Result5;

SQL NCHAR Function Example 2

In this example, We are going to use the NCHAR function inside the WHILE LOOP. I suggest you to refer the UNICODE, SUBSTRING and WHILE LOOP articles to understand the query execution.

T-SQL CODE

DECLARE @i INT, 
        @string1 NCHAR(16)  

-- Initialize the variables.  
SET @i = 1
SET @string1 = 'TùtÓrïål GãtÊwáy'
 
WHILE @i <= LEN(@string1)
	BEGIN
		SELECT SUBSTRING(@string1, @i, 1) AS [NChar Value],
			   UNICODE(SUBSTRING(@string1, @i, 1)) AS [UNICODE Result],
			   NCHAR(UNICODE(SUBSTRING(@string1, @i, 1))) AS [NCHAR Result]
		SET @i = @i + 1
	END

OUTPUT

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