ord() function in Python

Last Updated : 30 Jun, 2023

Python ord() function returns the Unicode code from a given character. This function accepts a string of unit length as an argument and returns the Unicode equivalence of the passed argument. In other words, given a string of length 1, the ord() function returns an integer representing the Unicode code point of the character when an argument is a Unicode object, or the value of the byte when the argument is an 8-bit string.

Example

Here, ord(‘a’) returns the integer 97, ord(‘€’) (Euro sign) returns 8364. This is the inverse of chr() for 8-bit strings and of unichr() for Unicode objects. If a Unicode argument is given and Python is built with UCS2 Unicode, then the character’s code point must be in the range [0..65535] inclusive.

Python3

print(ord('a'))  # Output: 97
print(ord('€'))  # Output: 8364

Python ord() Syntax

Syntax: ord(ch)

Parameter : ch – A unicode character

How does ord work in Python?

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

Python3

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

Output :

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.

Demonstration of Python ord() function

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

Python

# inbuilt function return an
# integer representing the Unicode code
value = ord("A")
 
# writing in ' ' gives the same result
value1 = ord('A')
 
# prints the unicode value
print (value, value1)

Output

65 65

Error Condition while Using Ord(0)

A TypeError is raised when the length of the string is not equal to 1 as shown below.

Python3

# inbuilt function return an
# integer representing the Unicode code
# demonstrating exception
 
# Raises Exception
value1 = ord('AB')
 
# prints the unicode value
print(value1)

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

Python ord() and chr() Functions

The chr() method returns a string representing a character whose Unicode code point is an integer.

Syntax: chr(num)

num : integer value

Where ord() methods work on the Unicodeopposite for chr() function.

Example of ord() and chr() functions

This code print() the Unicode of the character with the ord() and after getting the Unicode we are printing the character with the chr() function.

Python3

# inbuilt function return an
# integer representing the Unicode code
value = ord("A")
 
# prints the unicode value
print (value)
 
# print the character
print(chr(value))