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Java Program to Print the ASCII Value of a Character

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ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) gives every basic character a number from 0 to 127. For example, 'A' is 65, 'a' is 97, '0' is 48 and a space is 32.

A Java char is stored as a number (its Unicode value, which matches ASCII for these characters), so finding the ASCII value is just a matter of reading the char as an int.

1. ASCII Value Using Assignment and Casting

Assigning a char to an int variable converts it automatically (implicit widening). You can also cast explicitly with (int).

AsciiValue.java 
public class AsciiValue {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        char ch = 's';

        int ascii = ch;            // implicit conversion
        int castAscii = (int) ch;  // explicit cast

        System.out.println("The ASCII value of " + ch + " is: " + ascii);
        System.out.println("The ASCII value of " + ch + " is: " + castAscii);
    }
}
Output
The ASCII value of s is: 115
The ASCII value of s is: 115

2. ASCII Value with User Input

AsciiValueInput.java 
import java.util.Scanner;

public class AsciiValueInput {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
        System.out.print("Enter a character: ");
        char ch = scanner.next().charAt(0);
        scanner.close();

        System.out.println("The ASCII value of " + ch + " is: " + (int) ch);
    }
}
Output (with sample input)
Enter a character: G
The ASCII value of G is: 71

3. ASCII Values of Every Character in a String

toCharArray() turns a string into an array of characters, which a loop can process one by one.

AsciiValuesOfString.java 
public class AsciiValuesOfString {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String text = "SMILE";
        System.out.println("String: " + text);

        for (char ch : text.toCharArray()) {
            System.out.println(ch + " -> " + (int) ch);
        }
    }
}
Output
String: SMILE
S -> 83
M -> 77
I -> 73
L -> 76
E -> 69

4. Character from an ASCII Value

The conversion also works the other way: casting an int to char gives the character with that code. This program prints the codes 65 to 70.

CharFromAscii.java 
public class CharFromAscii {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        for (int code = 65; code <= 70; code++) {
            System.out.println(code + " -> " + (char) code);
        }
    }
}
Output
65 -> A
66 -> B
67 -> C
68 -> D
69 -> E
70 -> F

5. Summary

  • Every character has a numeric code; in ASCII, 'A' is 65 and 'a' is 97.
  • Assign a char to an int, or cast with (int), to get its value.
  • Cast an int to (char) to get the character for a code.
  • Use toCharArray() to print the values of every character in a string.

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