ord() function in Python

Python ord() function returns the Unicode code of a given single character. It is a modern encoding standard that aims to represent every character in every language.

Unicode includes:

• ASCII characters (first 128 code points)
• Emojis, currency symbols, accented characters, etc.

For example, unicode of ‘A’ = 65 and ‘€’ = 8364. Let’s look at a code example of ord() function:

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Python

print(ord('a'))
print(ord('€')) 

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97
8364

Explanation:

• ord() function returns the unicode of the character passed to it as an argument.
• unicode of ‘a’ = 97 and ‘€’ = 8364.

Syntax

ord(ch)

Parameter:

• ch: A single Unicode character (string of length 1).

Return type: it returns an integer representing the Unicode code point of the character.

Examples of ord() Function

Example 1: Basic Usage of ord()

In this example, We are showing the ord() value of an integer, character, and unique character with ord() function in Python.

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Python

print(ord('2'))    
print(ord('g'))    
print(ord('&'))    

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50
103
38

Note: If the string length is more than one, a TypeError will be raised. The syntax can be ord(“a”) or ord(‘a’), both will give the same results. The example is given below.

Example 2: Exploring ord() with Digits and Symbols

This code shows that ord() value of  “A” and ‘A’ gives the same result.

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Python

v1 = ord("A")

v2 = ord('A')

print (v1, v2)

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Output

65 65

Example 3: String Length > 1 Causes Error

The ord() function only accepts a single character. If the string length is more than 1, a TypeError will be raised.

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Python

print(ord('AB'))  

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Output:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File “/home/f988dfe667cdc9a8e5658464c87ccd18.py”, line 6, in 

    value1 = ord(‘AB’)

TypeError: ord() expected a character, but string of length 2 found

Example 4: Using Both ord() and chr()

chr() function does the exact opposite of ord() function, i.e. it converts a unicode integer into a character. Let’s look at an example:

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Python

v= ord("A")

print (v)

print(chr(v))

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65
A

Related articles:

• chr() method
• unicode
• ASCII