---
title: "ordinal"
description: "Takes a Unicode character (as a string), and returns the corresponding character code, as an integer."
---

# ordinal

> Takes a Unicode character (as a string), and returns the corresponding character code, as an integer.

**This function is used by Ignition's Expression language.**

## Description
:::note
This function can work for ASCII conversions as well, since Unicode and ASCII character codes match for all ASCII characters.
:::

## Syntax
`ordinal(string)`

### Parameters

| Type | Parameter | Description |
|---|---|---|
| String | `string` | A string containing a single Unicode character. If the string does not contain exactly one character, an ExpressionEval error is thrown. |

### Results
**Integer** - The character code associated with the Unicode character.

## Examples
```python title="Code Snippet"
ordinal("a") //Returns 97.
```
```python title="Code Snippet"
ordinal("AA") //Returns Error_ExpressionEval.
```
```python title="Code Snippet"
ordinal("ñ") //Returns 241
```