CHAR function

This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the CHAR function in Microsoft Excel.

Description

Returns the character specified by a number. Use CHAR to translate code page numbers you might get from files on other types of computers into characters.

Operating environment	Character set
Macintosh	Macintosh character set
Windows	ANSI The ANSI character set was the standard set of characters used in Windows operating systems through Windows 95 and Windows NT, after which Unicode was adopted. ANSI consists of 218 characters, many of which share the same numerical codes as in the ASCII/Unicode formats. https://www.techopedia.com/definition/932/ansi-character-set

Syntax

CHAR(number)

The CHAR function syntax has the following arguments:

• Number    Required. A number between 1 and 255 specifying which character you want. The character is from the character set used by your computer.

  Note: Excel Online supports only CHAR(9), CHAR(10), CHAR(13), and CHAR(32) and above.

Example

Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Formula	Description	Result
=CHAR(65)	Displays the character represented by 65 in the computer's character set.	A
=CHAR(33)	Displays the character represented by 33 in the computer's character set.	!