ord() function in Python

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.

Python ord() syntax:

Syntax:  ord(ch)

Python ord() parameters:

ch – A unicode character

Python ord() example

For example, 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. 

Note: If the string length is more than one, and a TypeError will be raised. The syntax can be ord(“a”) or ord(‘a’), both will give same results. 

Example 1: Demonstration of Python ord() function

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

Example 2: Python ord() Error Condition

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 opposite for chr() function:

Example of ord() and chr() functions

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))

Output:

65
A