Returning an ANSI Value

Summary: Need to know the character value of the first character in a string? It's easy to do, without using a macro, by using the CODE function, described in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

You may have a need to determine the ANSI value of the text in a particular cell. You can do this using the CODE worksheet function. This function returns a numeric value that represents the ANSI value of the first letter in the referenced cell. For instance, if cell A1 contains the text "My Stuff," and that B1 contains the following:

=CODE(A1)

In this instance, B1 will have a result of 77, which is the ANSI value of M, the first character in A1.

If the value in the referenced cell is numeric (such as 34 or 2798), then the CODE function treats the numeric value as if it were text and returns the ANSI value of the first digit in the value. Thus, if A1 contained 34, then CODE would return 51, which is the ANSI value of "3."

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2153) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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Returning an ANSI Value