UNICODE in ONLYOFFICE: Find a Character’s Code Point
Learn UNICODE in ONLYOFFICE Spreadsheet Editor: retrieve the first character’s Unicode code point, diagnose hidden spaces, and understand Unicode normalization.
Verification status: Official documentation referenced; example outcomes independently reasoned or arithmetically checked where stated. Not executed in ONLYOFFICE Spreadsheet Editor. How formula examples are checked
Quick answer: =UNICODE("A") returns the Unicode code point 65, the decimal value of U+0041. Unlike CODE, which the vendor describes in terms of an ASCII value, UNICODE is intended to identify the code point of the first character of a text value. Independently expected result: 65.
Version and platform scope — documentation checked 2026-10-13: These examples follow the current English, unversioned ONLYOFFICE Spreadsheet Editor function reference. The ONLYOFFICE Docs 10.0 announcement was published 10 October 2026, but the function reference does not identify which exact Desktop Editors release first supports this function, nor does it confirm parity with every older web server or mobile editor. The function documentation is not a native runtime compatibility test. Before adopting a formula in production, test it in your own installed version of Desktop Editors or the deployed browser-based editor. Do not infer that a function was introduced in Docs 10.0 merely because its page is present today.
Validation transparency: All results labelled expected below follow independent Unicode/decimal reasoning or an official reference claim, not a calculation observed in ONLYOFFICE. No Desktop or web instance was run; no screenshots, build test, or unsupported error outputs are represented as measured results.
Formula language and locale: ONLYOFFICE’s regional settings allow a formula language and a region to be selected independently; the documented English function-insertion instructions show comma-delimited function arguments. The examples below use English function names and comma argument separators. Localized formula names/separators and output punctuation must be confirmed with the reader’s settings. Quoted text and literal Unicode characters are not interchangeable with argument delimiters.
Official syntax and argument details
=UNICODE(text)
The ONLYOFFICE UNICODE reference documents one required text argument: the string whose first character should be inspected. There are no optional parameters and no default. Give a quoted string such as "B", or a cell reference to a text value.
| Argument | Required | Type and purpose | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
text |
Yes | Text string (or text-containing cell reference); inspects the first character | None |
It returns a number, not the original text. If A2 contains Apple, then =UNICODE(A2) examines A rather than the whole word.
Build a small, reproducible test sheet
Enter these values as text in A2:A8. The accented-e comparison below uses visually similar strings with distinct Unicode sequences; for reproducibility, copy the exact inputs instead of retyping on a keyboard with unknown normalization.
| Cell | Literal text in A | First code point | Formula | Independently expected number |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A2 | A |
U+0041 | =UNICODE(A2) |
65 |
| A3 | Apple |
U+0041 | =UNICODE(A3) |
65 |
| A4 | a |
U+0061 | =UNICODE(A4) |
97 |
| A5 | © Notice |
U+00A9 | =UNICODE(A5) |
169 |
| A6 | ★ Urgent |
U+2605 | =UNICODE(A6) |
9733 |
| A7 | é (leading space) |
U+0020 | =UNICODE(A7) |
32 |
| A8 | 😀 |
U+1F600 | =UNICODE(A8) |
128512 (supplementary character; native handling unverified) |
How these were validated: Python’s ord(value[0]) (standard Unicode code-point interpretation) produced the listed numbers. These are independent expected outputs, not evidence that a particular ONLYOFFICE Desktop or web version processes every code point identically.
Two lookalike strings can be different
A visually accented e can be a single character é (U+00E9, decimal 233), or a plain e (U+0065, decimal 101) followed by a combining acute accent (U+0301). Unicode distinguishes these representations even if they look the same. Use the literals in these formulas:
=UNICODE("é")
=UNICODE("é")
The independently expected numbers are 233 and 101, respectively. If either input is automatically normalized by an editor, keyboard, copy/paste process or import, the observed result may differ. Inspect or preserve the underlying input before drawing conclusions about ONLYOFFICE.
Advanced use: expose unwanted leading whitespace
If an imported product label should start with a letter, enter A-100 (one ordinary leading ASCII space) into A10 and this formula into B10:
=UNICODE(A10)
Independently expected numeric result: 32. The same label without its leading space, A-100, independently yields 65. This quickly distinguishes two data records that appear nearly identical. A nonbreaking space (U+00A0) would yield 160 under Unicode-code-point semantics; its actual handling in the target editor should be checked, particularly if source data contains HTML exports.
For repeated imports, pair this check with a separate cleaning/normalization step and log the original text. Do not automatically delete arbitrary Unicode characters: diacritics and non-Latin scripts can be legitimate identifiers.
Round-trip test with UNICHAR
=UNICHAR(UNICODE("★"))
=UNICODE(UNICHAR(169))
Independently expected outputs: ★ and 169, respectively. The combination is useful as a Unicode regression test across spreadsheet editors but is not a substitute for testing it in ONLYOFFICE itself. A more ambitious test with 😀 probes UTF-16 surrogate handling and font rendering and should be labelled native test required.
Error cases and limits: avoid importing Excel assumptions
| Situation | Documented versus unverified behaviour |
|---|---|
Empty string =UNICODE("") |
The checked ONLYOFFICE page does not specify the precise error outcome. Record the actual result in your tested build rather than inventing #VALUE!. |
| Formula cell returns an empty-looking string | Native behavior and whether it is treated as empty text need a target-version test. |
| Text begins with a space | Unicode U+0020 has decimal code 32 (independently verified); this is a useful quality-control test. |
| Accented characters with combining marks | The function’s documented first-character rule predicts the first code point; input normalization still needs inspection. |
| Emoji beyond U+FFFF | A Unicode scalar has a single code point even if encoded in multiple UTF-16 units; verify how the deployed editor implements this distinction. |
| Non-text or invalid surrogate inputs | Vendor reference is silent; avoid a universal error-code claim. |
Related functions and portability: ONLYOFFICE CODE describes the first character’s ASCII value, while UNICODE covers Unicode code points. Microsoft Excel’s UNICODE reference uses the same one-argument syntax and describes invalid surrogate handling, but its exact errors do not prove parity in ONLYOFFICE. Differences between UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoding lengths also do not by themselves imply different Unicode code points.
Official references and verification record
- ONLYOFFICE UNICODE — current name, syntax, first-character semantics; accessed 13 October 2026.
- ONLYOFFICE Insert Functions — catalogue/category and comma-delimited English function entry; accessed 13 October 2026.
- ONLYOFFICE regional settings — language and regional settings; accessed 13 October 2026.
- ONLYOFFICE CODE — related vendor function; accessed 13 October 2026.
- Microsoft Excel UNICODE — cross-application comparison, not an ONLYOFFICE assertion.
- ONLYOFFICE Docs 10.0 announcement — 10 October 2026 current-release context only.
Native execution, invalid-input behavior, input normalization, supplementary-character handling and platform-specific font rendering remain untested.