Overview
KB
Technical FAQ
PHP Manual
CSS2 Manual
HTML Manual
JS Guide
JS Reference
PhpDock Manual
Nu-Coder Manual
PhpExpress Manual
PHP Joomla
Development
Learn PHP
 
<IntlChar::charDirectionIntlChar::charMirror>
^IntlCharLast updated: Mon, 26 Oct 2026

IntlChar::charFromName

(PHP 7, PHP 8)

IntlChar::charFromName — Find Unicode character by name and return its code point value

Description

public static function IntlChar::charFromName(string $name, int $type = IntlChar::UNICODE_CHAR_NAME): ?int

Finds a Unicode character by its name and returns its code point value.

The name is matched exactly and completely. If the name does not correspond to a code point, null is returned.

A Unicode 1.0 name is matched only if it differs from the modern name. Unicode names are all uppercase. Extended names are lowercase followed by a hyphen followed by an uppercase hexadecimal number, and within angle brackets.

Parameters

name

Full name of the Unicode character.

type

Which set of names to use for the lookup. Can be any of these constants:

Return Values

The Unicode value of the code point with the given name (as an int), or null if there is no such code point.

Examples

Example #1 Testing different code points

<?php

var_dump(IntlChar::charFromName("LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A"));
var_dump(IntlChar::charFromName("SNOWMAN"));
var_dump(IntlChar::charFromName("RECYCLING SYMBOL FOR TYPE-1 PLASTICS"));
var_dump(IntlChar::charFromName("A RANDOM STRING WHICH DOESN'T CORRESPOND TO ANY UNICODE CHARACTER"));

var_dump(IntlChar::charFromName("<control-08>", IntlChar::EXTENDED_CHAR_NAME));

?>

The above example will output:

int(65)
int(9731)
int(9843)
NULL
int(8)

See Also


<IntlChar::charDirectionIntlChar::charMirror>
^IntlCharLast updated: Mon, 26 Oct 2026