In a Nutshell
The Excel CHAR Function returns the character represented by a specified code number from the character set of your computer.
In other words, the purpose of the function is to display a character based on a supplied number. E.g. code 128 represents €.
Syntax
CHAR(number)
The CHAR function syntax has only one argument (input):
-
Number – A number between 1 and 255 specifying which character you want. The character is from the character set used by your computer.
Note: Excel for the web only supports CHAR(9), CHAR(10), CHAR(13), and then CHAR(32) onwards.
Click here to see a list of all 255 ASCII values (Windows character set).
Examples
The example file can be downloaded here.
Notes
- The argument number needs to be a value between 1 and 255. This can either be entered as a value (e.g. example 2 below), as a cell reference (e.g. example 1) or a mix of these (e.g. example 10).
- Values outside of this range produce an error.
- CHAR(10) produces a line break
- CHAR(34) produces a double quotation mark. This is useful for displaying double quotation marks in a formula.
- The CODE function is the inverse of the CHAR function. E.g. the result of CHAR(65) is “A” whereas the result of CODE(“A”) is 65.
- Leading zeroes are ignored (see example 4 below).
Errors
#VALUE! – If number is out of range (number can only be from 1-255)
#VALUE! – If number is not numeric
Excel Versions Supported
Excel 2003 onwards
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