Syntax. CODE(text)

Definition. This function returns the code of the first character in a string. The code corresponds to the character set used by your computer.

Arguments

Background. Sometimes it is useful to know the code of a character, such as a special character. CODE() is the counterpart of CHAR(), which returns the character for a code value.

Because the function returns the code value for the first character of the text, you need to use only a single-letter argument. CODE("Excel"), CODE("Ergonomics") and CODE("E") all return 69 for the capital letter E.

To return the code for the second or third character, use the MID() function. The formula

=CODE(MID("Excel",2,1))

returns the code for the lowercase x: 120.

You can use this function to assign category numbers to the first names in a column. Assume that all first names beginning with A have the category number 1, all first names beginning with B have the number 2, and so on. Uppercase and lowercase characters should be treated the same. The formula uses another text function: UPPER().

=CODE(UPPER("torsten"))-64

The formula returns the value 20 (see Figure 8-1). This is the position of T in the alphabet. The UPPER() function changed the argument torsten to TORSTEN. Because the uppercase A has the code 65, you have to subtract 64 to get the correct position in the alphabet.

Figure 8-1. Calculating the category number from the first letter.