Summary

The Excel UNICHAR function returns a Unicode character based on a given number.

Purpose 

Get Unicode character by number

Return value 

Unicode character

Arguments 

  • number - Code point for a Unicode character in decimal.

Syntax 

=UNICHAR(number)

Usage notes 

The UNICHAR function returns the Unicode character at a given code point, provided as a number.  Unicode is a computing standard for the unified encoding, representation, and handling of text in most of the world's writing systems. 

Like ASCII, Unicode is a character set. However, Unicode is a very large character set, because Unicode is a superset of other character sets. Whereas ASCII contains 128 characters, Unicode 11.0 (June 2018) contains 137,439 characters covering 146 modern and historic scripts.

Unicode can be implemented in different encodings, for example, UTF-8, UTF-16, etc. UTF-8 dominates the web. It is estimated that over 90% of websites use UTF-8. The first 128 Unicode code points are the ASCII characters.

Example

The Euro symbol (€) is code point 8364 in decimal notation. The following formula will return the Euro character:

=UNICHAR(8364) // returns euro sign "€"

You can use UNICHAR to insert special characters into a formula, like a checkmark when a task is complete.

Reverse CHAR

The UNICODE function performs the opposite conversion, returning the code point for a given Unicode character.

Notes

  • If number is out-of-range, UNICHAR returns #VALUE!
  • If number is not a recognized number, UNICHAR returns #VALUE!
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Dave Bruns

Hi - I'm Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.