ChrW$ Function

Returns a String containing the Unicode character associated with the specified character code. The dollar sign suffix ($) explicitly indicates that this function returns a String type (not a Variant), and the "W" suffix indicates this is the wide (Unicode) version.

Syntax

ChrW$(charcode)

Parameters

• charcode: Required. Long value that identifies a Unicode character. Valid values are -32768 to 65535. The range 0-65535 represents Unicode characters. Negative values are treated as unsigned values (e.g., -1 becomes 65535).

Return Value

Returns a String containing the single Unicode character corresponding to the specified character code. The return value is always a String type (never Variant), and represents a Unicode character (2 bytes).

Remarks

• The ChrW$ function combines the behavior of ChrW (Unicode character) with the $ suffix (explicit String return type).
• Valid range: -32768 to 65535 (values outside this range may cause errors).
• ChrW$ returns Unicode characters, allowing access to the full Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP).
• For values 0-127, ChrW$ and Chr$ return the same ASCII characters.
• For values 128-255, ChrW$ returns Unicode characters while Chr$ returns ANSI characters.
• For values above 255, only ChrW$ can be used (not Chr$ or ChrB$).
• ChrW$(0) returns a null character (vbNullChar).
• ChrW$(13) returns carriage return (vbCr).
• ChrW$(10) returns line feed (vbLf).
• ChrW$(9) returns tab character (vbTab).
• The inverse function is AscW, which returns the Unicode character code of a character.
• For better performance when you know the result is a string, use ChrW$ instead of ChrW.

Common Character Codes

Typical Uses

1. Unicode characters - Access characters beyond the ANSI range
2. International text - Work with non-English characters
3. Special symbols - Insert mathematical, currency, and other Unicode symbols
4. Line breaks - Insert carriage returns and line feeds
5. Emoji and symbols - Access Unicode symbols (within BMP range)
6. Cross-platform text - Generate Unicode text for better compatibility
7. Web content - Create Unicode strings for web applications

Basic Examples

' Example 1: Get character from code
Dim ch As String
ch = ChrW$(65)  ' Returns "A"

' Example 2: Unicode character beyond ANSI
Dim euro As String
euro = ChrW$(8364)  ' Returns "€"

' Example 3: Copyright symbol
Dim copyright As String
copyright = ChrW$(169)  ' Returns "©"

' Example 4: Line break
Dim msg As String
msg = "Line 1" & ChrW$(13) & ChrW$(10) & "Line 2"

Common Patterns

Multi-line Strings

Function CreateMultiLine() As String
Dim result As String
result = "First Line" & ChrW$(13) & ChrW$(10)
result = result & "Second Line" & ChrW$(13) & ChrW$(10)
result = result & "Third Line"
CreateMultiLine = result
End Function

Unicode Symbols

Function CreateCopyrightNotice(year As String, company As String) As String
CreateCopyrightNotice = "Copyright " & ChrW$(169) & " " & year & " " & company
End Function

Currency Symbols

Function FormatPrice(amount As Double, currency As String) As String
Dim symbol As String
Select Case currency
Case "EUR"
symbol = ChrW$(8364)  ' €
Case "GBP"
symbol = ChrW$(163)   ' £
Case "YEN"
symbol = ChrW$(165)   ' ¥
Case Else
symbol = "$"
End Select
FormatPrice = symbol & Format(amount, "0.00")
End Function

International Characters

Function GetGreeting(language As String) As String
Select Case language
Case "German"
GetGreeting = "Gr" & ChrW$(252) & ChrW$(223) & " Gott"  ' Grüß Gott
Case "French"
GetGreeting = "Fran" & ChrW$(231) & "ais"  ' Français
Case "Spanish"
GetGreeting = "Espa" & ChrW$(241) & "ol"   ' Español
Case Else
GetGreeting = "Hello"
End Select
End Function

Mathematical Symbols

Function CreateMathExpression() As String
Dim result As String
result = "x " & ChrW$(8804) & " 10"  ' x ≤ 10
result = result & " " & ChrW$(8743) & " "  ' ∧ (and)
result = result & "x " & ChrW$(8805) & " 0"  ' x ≥ 0
CreateMathExpression = result
End Function

Tab-Separated Values

Function CreateTSV(col1 As String, col2 As String, col3 As String) As String
CreateTSV = col1 & ChrW$(9) & col2 & ChrW$(9) & col3
End Function

Quote in String

Function AddQuotes(text As String) As String
AddQuotes = ChrW$(34) & text & ChrW$(34)
End Function

Bullet Points

Function CreateBulletList() As String
Dim result As String
Dim bullet As String
bullet = ChrW$(8226)  ' •
result = bullet & " First item" & ChrW$(13) & ChrW$(10)
result = result & bullet & " Second item" & ChrW$(13) & ChrW$(10)
result = result & bullet & " Third item"
CreateBulletList = result
End Function

Null-Terminated String

Function CreateNullTerminated(text As String) As String
CreateNullTerminated = text & ChrW$(0)
End Function

Generate Alphabet

Function GenerateAlphabet() As String
Dim i As Integer
Dim result As String
For i = 65 To 90
result = result & ChrW$(i)
Next i
GenerateAlphabet = result  ' Returns "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
End Function

Related Functions

• ChrW: Returns Unicode character as Variant instead of String
• Chr$: Returns ANSI/system character (limited to 0-255)
• ChrB$: Returns byte character (limited to 0-255)
• AscW: Returns Unicode character code (inverse of ChrW$)
• Asc: Returns ANSI character code
• AscB: Returns byte value

Error Handling

Function SafeChrW(code As Long) As String
On Error Resume Next
SafeChrW = ChrW$(code)
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
SafeChrW = ""
Err.Clear
End If
End Function

Performance Considerations

• ChrW$ is slightly more efficient than ChrW because it avoids Variant overhead
• For building strings from many characters, consider using arrays and Join
• Concatenating many ChrW$ calls can be slow; use buffers for better performance
• Unicode strings may take more memory than ANSI strings

Best Practices

1. Use named constants for common characters instead of magic numbers
2. Use ChrW$ for Unicode characters, Chr$ for ANSI-only characters
3. Document character codes with comments showing the actual character
4. Validate character codes are in valid range before calling ChrW$
5. Use vbCrLf constant instead of ChrW$(13) & ChrW$(10) when possible
6. Prefer ChrW$ over ChrW when you need a String result
7. Consider internationalization when working with Unicode characters

Unicode Ranges

• 0-127: ASCII characters (same as ANSI)
• 128-255: Latin-1 Supplement
• 256-383: Latin Extended-A
• 384-591: Latin Extended-B
• 8192-8303: General Punctuation
• 8352-8399: Currency Symbols
• 8448-8527: Letterlike Symbols
• 8592-8703: Arrows
• 8704-8959: Mathematical Operators

Limitations

• Limited to Unicode BMP (Basic Multilingual Plane) - codes 0-65535
• Cannot directly create characters from supplementary planes (codes > 65535)
• VB6 uses UCS-2 encoding, not full UTF-16
• Some Unicode characters may not display correctly depending on font support