UNICODE
Returns the Unicode code point of the first character of a text string. Supports the full Unicode range, unlike CODE which is limited to the ANSI character set.
UNICODE(text)Arguments
textThe text whose first character's Unicode value you want to obtain.
=UNICODE("A")Returns the Unicode value of 'A'
=UNICODE("€")Returns 8364 for the Euro sign
=UNICODE("日")Works with characters outside the ANSI range
- •Available since Excel 2013
- •Use UNICHAR for the reverse operation (Unicode value → character)
- •Only the first character of the text is evaluated
- •Returns #VALUE! if the text is empty
- •Confusing UNICODE with CODE - CODE is limited to your system's character set (roughly the first 255 ANSI values), while UNICODE returns the full Unicode code point, and the two can disagree for characters outside that basic range
- •Applying UNICODE to more than a single character in a string, expecting a list back - it only ever returns the code point of the very first character
- •Using UNICODE on an empty cell or empty string, which raises a #VALUE! error since there's no character present to evaluate
UNICHARPerforms the reverse operation - converts a Unicode code point back into its corresponding character.CODEReturns a code from your system's more limited character set, rather than the full Unicode code point UNICODE provides.LENCounts how many characters a string contains, useful context before deciding whether UNICODE's single-character limitation matters.What's the difference between UNICODE and CODE?
CODE returns a code from your system's character set (roughly the first 255 values), while UNICODE returns the character's actual Unicode code point across the entire Unicode range - for characters like emoji or non-Latin scripts, the two can give very different results.
Does UNICODE work on a whole word or just one character?
Only the first character of the text - UNICODE("Hello") returns the code point for "H" alone, ignoring the rest of the string.
Why does UNICODE return #VALUE!?
The input is an empty string or blank cell - UNICODE needs at least one character present to return a code point.
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