sql: reverse function of Char()

Question

in SQL, char() converts an integer to a character (e.g., char(101) returns 'e'). What's the reverse function of char() (e.g., convert 'e' to 101)?

Answer 1

ORD() or ASCII(), though they're not strictly a reverse since they will only handle the first character of the string passed in whereas CHAR() can build a string from a list of digits.

As per Michael Buen's answer it's worth noting that ORD() is MySql-only, whereas ASCII() is more widely supported but doesn't handle multi-byte characters.

mysql> SELECT CHAR(104), ASCII('h'), ORD('h');
+-----------+------------+----------+
| CHAR(104) | ASCII('h') | ORD('h') |
+-----------+------------+----------+
| h         |        104 |      104 |
+-----------+------------+----------+

Answer 2

I was about to upvote BluesRockAddict's answer, but he deleted his answer, but it's the best answer, ASCII works on many platforms, e.g. SQL Server, Oracle, Postgresql, and of course MySQL

SELECT ASCII('e')

ORD works on MySQL only

http://www.sqlfiddle.com/