> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mariadb.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/ord.md).

# ORD

## Syntax

```bnf
ORD(str)
```

## Description

If the leftmost character of the string `str` is a multi-byte character, returns the code for that character, calculated from the numeric values of its constituent bytes using this formula:

```sql
(1st byte code)
+ (2nd byte code x 256)
+ (3rd byte code x 256 x 256) ...
```

If the leftmost character is not a multi-byte character, `ORD()` returns the same value as the [ASCII()](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/ascii.md) function.

## Examples

```sql
SELECT ORD('2');
+----------+
| ORD('2') |
+----------+
|       50 |
+----------+
```

## See Also

* [ASCII()](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/ascii.md) - Return ASCII value of first character
* [CHAR()](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/char-function.md) - Create a character from an integer value

<sub>*This page is licensed: GPLv2, originally from*</sub> [<sub>*fill\_help\_tables.sql*</sub>](https://github.com/MariaDB/server/blob/main/scripts/fill_help_tables.sql)

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