When the

Data Integration Service

uses ASCII mode, CHRCODE returns the numeric ASCII value of the first character of the string passed to the function. ASCII values fall in the range 0 to 255.

When the

Data Integration Service

uses Unicode mode, CHRCODE returns the numeric Unicode value of the first character of the string passed to the function. Unicode values fall in the range 0 to 65,535.

Normally, before you pass any string value to CHRCODE, you parse out the specific character you want to convert to an ASCII or Unicode value. For example, you might use RTRIM or another string-manipulation function. If you pass a numeric value, CHRCODE converts it to a character string and returns the ASCII or Unicode value of the first character in the string.

This function is identical in behavior to the ASCII function. If you currently use ASCII in expressions, it will still work correctly. However, when you create new expressions, use the CHRCODE function instead of the ASCII function.