How to use the Python ord() Function

The ord() function in Python converts characters to an integer representation. In the case of Unicode characters, this is a Unicode code point and for ASCII chars it is a 7-bit ASCII code.

 

ord() Syntax

ord() accepts one parameter; the character string.

 

ord(character)

 

Let's try converting some ASCII, Unicode and Emoji characters to demonstrate how it works:

 

print(ord('a'))

print(ord('b'))

print(ord('Æ'))

print(ord('😭'))

97
98
198
128557

 

To convert int representations back to a character, use the chr() function like this:

 

print(chr(97))
print(chr(98))
print(chr(198))
print(chr(128557))

a

b

Æ

😭