String.prototype.codePointAt()

The codePointAt() method returns a non-negative integer that is the Unicode code point value at the given position. Note that this function does not give the nth code point in a string, but the code point starting at the specified string index.

Try it

Syntax

js

codePointAt(pos)

Parameters

pos

Position of an element in str to return the code point value from.

Return value

A decimal number representing the code point value of the character at the given pos.

  • If there is no element at pos, returns undefined.
  • If the element at pos is a UTF-16 high surrogate, returns the code point of the surrogate pair.
  • If the element at pos is a UTF-16 low surrogate, returns only the low surrogate code point.

Examples

Using codePointAt()

js

"ABC".codePointAt(0); // 65
"ABC".codePointAt(0).toString(16); // 41

"😍".codePointAt(0); // 128525
"\ud83d\ude0d".codePointAt(0); // 128525
"\ud83d\ude0d".codePointAt(0).toString(16); // 1f60d

"😍".codePointAt(1); // 56845
"\ud83d\ude0d".codePointAt(1); // 56845
"\ud83d\ude0d".codePointAt(1).toString(16); // de0d

"ABC".codePointAt(42); // undefined

Looping with codePointAt()

Because indexing to a pos whose element is a UTF-16 low surrogate, returns only the low surrogate, it's better not to index directly into a UTF-16 string.

Instead, use a for...of statement or an Array's forEach() method (or anything which correctly iterates UTF-16 surrogates) to iterate the string, using codePointAt(0) to get the code point of each element.

js

for (const codePoint of "\ud83d\udc0e\ud83d\udc71\u2764") {
  console.log(codePoint.codePointAt(0).toString(16));
}
// '1f40e', '1f471', '2764'

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript Language Specification
# sec-string.prototype.codepointat

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also