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BYTE

Returns the character corresponding to the specified character code.

Synopsis

BYTE(charcode)

Arguments

charcode An expression that resolves to an integer code that identifies a character. For 8-bit characters, the value in charcode must evaluate to a positive integer in the range 0 to 255. For 16-bit characters, specify integers in the range 256 through 65534.

Description

The BYTE function takes a character code and returns the corresponding character. The SEQ function takes a character and returns the corresponding ASCII character code. The charcode must be a positive, base-10 integer. A fractional number is truncated to its integer portion. A negative number, empty string, or non-numeric value returns the empty string.

Numbers from 0 to 31 are the same as standard, nonprintable ASCII codes. For example, BYTE(10) returns a linefeed character.

Note:

BYTE, CHAR, and UNICHAR are functionally identical. On Unicode systems both can be used to return 16-bit Unicode characters. On 8-bit systems, these functions return a null string for character codes beyond 255.

The Caché MVBasic BYTE function returns a single character. The corresponding ObjectScript $CHAR function can return a string of multiple characters by specifying a comma-separated list of ASCII codes. The Caché MVBasic CHARS function takes a dynamic array of ASCII codes and returns the corresponding single characters as a dynamic array.

Examples

The following example uses the BYTE function to return the character associated with the specified character code:

PRINT BYTE(65);    ! Returns A.
PRINT BYTE(97);    ! Returns a.
PRINT BYTE(37);    ! Returns %.
PRINT BYTE(62);    ! Returns >.

The following example uses the BYTE function to return the lowercase letter characters of the Russian alphabet on a Unicode version of Caché. On an 8-bit version of Caché it returns a null string for each letter:

letter=1072
FOR x=1 TO 32
  PRINT BYTE(letter)
  letter=letter+1
NEXT

See Also

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