Find ASCII Value of a Character

Read a character from the user and print its ASCII (Unicode code point) value.

PythonBeginner

What You'll Learn

  • Using ord() to get the Unicode code point
  • Basic input validation with length check
  • Working with single-character strings
Python
# Program to find the ASCII value of a character

ch = input("Enter a character: ")

if len(ch) != 1:
    print("Please enter exactly one character.")
else:
    print("The ASCII value of", ch, "is", ord(ch))

Output

Enter a character: A
The ASCII value of A is 65

Find ASCII Value of a Character in Python

Python uses Unicode, but for standard characters the code point matches the ASCII value.

Using ord() Function

We use the built-in ord() function to get the numeric value of a character:

  • ord('A') returns 65
  • ord('a') returns 97
  • ord('0') returns 48

Input Validation

The program also checks that the user enters exactly one character to avoid confusion:

python
if len(ch) != 1:
    print("Please enter exactly one character.")
else:
    print("The ASCII value of", ch, "is", ord(ch))

This ensures the program works correctly even if the user enters multiple characters.

Key Takeaways

1
ord() returns the Unicode code point (ASCII value for standard characters)
2

Input validation prevents errors

3

Single-character strings are used for character operations

Step-by-Step Breakdown

  1. 1Ask the user to enter a character.
  2. 2Check that the input length is exactly 1.
  3. 3Use ord() on the character to get its numeric value.
  4. 4Print the result in a readable sentence.