MariaDB ORD() Function

In MariaDB, ORD() is a built-in string function that returns the numeric code of the first character in a string argument.

The ORD() function is an enhanced version of the ASCII() function, it can handle not only single-byte characters, but also multi-byte characters.

MariaDB ORD() Syntax

Here is the syntax of the MariaDB ORD() function:

ORD(string)

Parameters

string

Required. a string.

Return value

The MariaDB ORD(string) function obtains the first character of string, and then returns the result according to the following rules:

• If the first character is a single-byte character, the ORD() function returns the ASCII value of the character

• If the first character is a multibyte character, the result is calculated according to the following formula:

    (1st byte code)
  + (2nd byte code x 256)
  + (3rd byte code x 256 x 256) ...
  

If the argument is an empty string '', the ORD() function will return 0.

If the argument is NULL, the ORD() function will return NULL.

MariaDB ORD() Examples

Single-byte character

For single-byte characters, the MariaDB ORD() function returns their ASCII value, the following statement demonstrates this:

SELECT ORD('A'), ORD('AB');

Output:

+----------+-----------+
| ORD('A') | ORD('AB') |
+----------+-----------+
|       65 |        65 |
+----------+-----------+

In this example, both ORD('A') and ORD('AB') return the ASCII value of A, which is 65, because ORD() returns only the numeric code for the first character.

Multibyte character

The MariaDB ORD() function can handle multi-byte characters, as follows:

SELECT ORD('©'), ORD('⟺'), ORD('你'), ORD('你好');

Output:

+-----------+------------+------------+---------------+
| ORD('©')  | ORD('⟺')   | ORD('你')  | ORD('你好')   |
+-----------+------------+------------+---------------+
|     49833 |   14852026 |   14990752 |      14990752 |
+-----------+------------+------------+---------------+

Empty string and NULL

If the argument is an empty string '', the ORD() function will return 0. If the argument is NULL, the ORD() function will return NULL.

SELECT ORD(''), ORD(NULL);

Output:

+---------+-----------+
| ORD('') | ORD(NULL) |
+---------+-----------+
|       0 |      NULL |
+---------+-----------+

Conclusion

In MariaDB, ORD() is a built-in string function that returns the numeric code of the first character in a string argument.