Of course! In Python, converting an integer to a character is done using the built-in chr() function. The reverse, converting a character to an integer, is done with ord().
The Short and Direct Answer
To convert an integer to its corresponding ASCII (or Unicode) character, use the chr() function.
# Convert integer 65 to a character my_int = 65 my_char = chr(my_int) print(my_char) # Output: 'A'
Detailed Explanation
The chr() Function
The chr(i) function takes an integer i (which must be in the range 0 <= i <= 0x10FFFF) and returns a string representing the character corresponding to that Unicode code point.
- For integers 0-127: These correspond directly to the standard ASCII table.
- For integers 128 and above: These correspond to characters in the Unicode standard, which includes characters from many languages, symbols, emojis, and more.
Examples:
# Standard ASCII characters print(chr(65)) # Output: 'A' print(chr(97)) # Output: 'a' print(chr(48)) # Output: '0' print(chr(33)) # Output: '!' # Non-ASCII Unicode characters print(chr(8364)) # Output: '€' (Euro sign) print(chr(128515)) # Output: '😃' (Grinning face emoji)
The Reverse: ord() Function
It's very common to see chr() and ord() used together. ord() does the exact opposite of chr().
ord(c)takes a single character stringcand returns its corresponding Unicode code point as an integer.
# Convert character 'A' to its integer code
my_char = 'A'
my_int = ord(my_char)
print(my_int)
# Output: 65
# They are perfect inverses of each other
print(chr(ord('Z'))) # Output: 'Z'
print(ord(chr(122))) # Output: 122
Common Use Cases
Generating the Alphabet
A classic example is generating all the letters of the alphabet.
# Generate lowercase alphabet
start_code = ord('a')
end_code = ord('z')
# Using a list comprehension
lowercase_alphabet = [chr(i) for i in range(start_code, end_code + 1)]
print(lowercase_alphabet)
# Output: ['a', 'b', 'c', ..., 'z']
# Generate uppercase alphabet
uppercase_alphabet = [chr(i) for i in range(ord('A'), ord('Z') + 1)]
print(uppercase_alphabet)
# Output: ['A', 'B', 'C', ..., 'Z']
Creating a Simple Cipher (Caesar Cipher)
You can use integer arithmetic to shift characters. For example, a Caesar cipher shifts each letter by a fixed number of positions.
def caesar_cipher(text, shift):
result = ""
for char in text:
if char.isalpha(): # Only shift letters
# Get the base ASCII value ('a' for lowercase, 'A' for uppercase)
base = ord('a') if char.islower() else ord('A')
# Shift the character, wrapping around the alphabet
shifted_code = (ord(char) - base + shift) % 26
result += chr(base + shifted_code)
else:
result += char # Leave non-alphabetic characters as they are
return result
plain_text = "Hello, World!"
shift = 3
cipher_text = caesar_cipher(plain_text, shift)
print(f"Original: {plain_text}")
print(f"Encrypted: {cipher_text}")
# Output:
# Original: Hello, World!
# Encrypted: Khoor, Zruog!
Handling Errors
If you try to use chr() with an integer outside the valid range (0 to 1114111), you will get a ValueError.
# This will cause an error
try:
invalid_char = chr(1114112) # 0x10FFFF + 1
except ValueError as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
# Output: Error: chr() arg not in range(0x110000)
# Negative numbers also cause an error
try:
invalid_char = chr(-1)
except ValueError as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
# Output: Error: chr() arg not in range(0x110000)
Summary
| Function | Purpose | Example | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
chr(i) |
Converts an integer to a character. | chr(65) |
'A' |
ord(c) |
Converts a character to an integer. | ord('A') |
65 |
