Converting Between ASCII Character and Code in PHP

Introduction

In this article I will explain converting between ASCII characters and codes in PHP. I want to retrieve the ASCII code corresponding to a specified character. So I will use the two important functions "chr()" and "ord()" for retrieving the ASCII code. First of all I will discuss the chr() function in PHP.

Syntax

chr(ASCII);

Parameter	Description
ASCII	Required an ASCII value.

This function returns the specified character.

Example

The chr() function returns the character for the specified ASCII value and this function is the complement of ord().

<?php

$str = "The string ends in escape: ";

$str .= chr(27);

//Often this is more useful

$str = sprintf("The string ends in escape: %c", 27);

echo $str;

The printf() function returns a formatted string with a format string of "%c".

Output
chr() function in php.jpg

Example

<?php

// define ASCII code

$str1 = 65;

$str2 = 66;

$str3 = 67;

$str4 = 68;

$str5 = 69;

$str6 = 60;

$str7 = 61;

$str8 = 62;

$str9 = 63;

// retrieve character

$char1 = chr($str1);

$char2 = chr($str2);

$char3 = chr($str3);

$char4 = chr($str4);

$char5 = chr($str5);

$char6 = chr($str6);

$char7 = chr($str7);

$char8 = chr($str8);

$char9 = chr($str9);

echo $char1." ";

echo $char2." ";

echo $char3." ";

echo $char4." ";

echo $char5." ";

echo $char6." ";

echo $char7." ";

echo $char8." ";

echo $char9." ";

Output

chr() function in php1.jpg

Next, I will discuss the ord() function in PHP. The ord() function converts an ASCII code to a character. The chr() function returns the ASCII value of the first character of the string.

Syntax

ord(string);

Parameter	Description
string	Required the string to get an ASCII code value.

Returns the ASCII value as an integer.

Example

<?php

// define character

$char1 = "\r";

$char2 = "\t";

$char3 = "\n";

$char4 = "A";

$char5 = "a";

$char6 = "Z";

$char7 = "z";

// retrieve ASCII code

$asc1 = ord($char1);

$asc2 = ord($char2);

$asc3 = ord($char3);

$asc4 = ord($char4);

$asc5 = ord($char5);

$asc6 = ord($char6);

$asc7 = ord($char7);

echo 'ASCII value of \r is ' . $asc1." ";

echo 'ASCII value of \t is ' . $asc2." ";

echo 'ASCII value of \n is ' . $asc3." ";

echo "ASCII value of A is $asc4"." ";

echo "ASCII value of a is $asc5"." ";

echo "ASCII value of Z is $asc6"." ";

echo "ASCII value of z is $asc7"." ";

?>

Output