Maruf Islam
American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is a character encoding standard for electronic devices. In its 7-bit version, it supports characters denoted by numbers 1-127 in Excel. Users from time to time need to insert certain characters, thus requiring the Excel ASCII to Char conversion.
In this article, we demonstrate the ASCII Table, ASCII to Character, and Character to ASCII Code (number) conversions.
Download Excel Workbook
Download the attached dataset to clarify the functions and their outcomes.
ASCII Table
Users are familiar with the ASCII Table that depicts the characters against ASCII Codes. Users use those codes in various formulas to insert desired characters. The characters include digits 0-9, lowercase alphabets a-z, uppercase alphabets A-Z, and punctuation. These characters are divided into two sections; Non-printable Control Characters (first 31 characters) and Printable Characters.
Read More: Character Codes for CHAR Function in Excel (5 Common Uses)
Using CHAR Function to Convert ASCII to Char
Excel offers the CHAR function (Excel 2000 and Later Versions) to simply convert numbers (i.e., ASCII Code) into characters. Also, to achieve the other way around, users can use the CODE function.
Go through the below section to learn more about Excel ASCII to Char conversion and vice versa.
The CHAR function takes a number and returns a single character. For extended versions of ASCII or ANSI it supports 1–255 numbers. The syntax of the CHAR function is
CHAR (number)The number ranges 1–255.
- Use the below formula in the cells to convert ASCII to Char.Â
=CHAR(B4) 
- On the contrary, the CODE function converts the characters into ASCII codes or numbers.
The VBA Asc function does the same as the CODE function in Excel VBA.
Read More: How to Use Code 9 with Excel CHAR Function (2 Easy Examples)
Things to Remember
- The Excel CHAR function results in an #VALUE error whenever:
- Insert number out of the 1–255
- Assign 0 to the argument.
- The outcome of the function is String/Text.
- The CODE function is the inverse of the CHAR function.
- Excel VBA also supports the function.
- Characters for numbers greater than 255, use the UNICHAR function.
- The function is available in Excel versions 2000 and later.
Conclusion
This article discusses ASCII Table and the conversion of Excel ASCII to Char or the opposite. I hope this article sheds enough light to give you a workable understanding of ASCII and its characters’ encoding. Comment if you have further inquiries or have anything to add.
Do check out our excellent website, ExcelDemy, to find interesting articles on Excel.
