Unicode to Text Converter

Convert Unicode code points (U+XXXX) to characters and vice versa.

Input

Output

Examples

Example 1

Hello 👋

Example 2

café

Example 3

中文

Understanding Unicode Code Points

Unicode code points are unique numeric identifiers assigned to every character in the Unicode standard, represented in hexadecimal notation as U+XXXX. For example, the letter 'A' is U+0041, the copyright symbol © is U+00A9, and the emoji 👋 is U+1F44B. Unicode encompasses over 149,000 characters across 159 scripts, including Latin, Chinese, Arabic, emoji, mathematical symbols, and historical scripts. Each code point maps one-to-one to a character, providing a universal character identification system that works across all platforms and languages.

The converter performs bidirectional transformation: characters to code points and code points to characters. Encoding text displays the Unicode notation for each character: 'Hello' becomes 'H = U+0048, e = U+0065, l = U+006C, l = U+006C, o = U+006F'. Decoding code points renders them as actual characters: entering 'U+1F44B' displays the waving hand emoji 👋. This tool helps developers verify character encoding, find the correct code point for symbols, and debug encoding issues where unexpected characters appear.

Unicode code points are organized into planes and blocks. The Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP, U+0000 to U+FFFF) contains most common characters including Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and CJK. Supplementary planes (U+10000 to U+10FFFF) include emoji, rare CJK characters, and historical scripts. Code points are written with 4-6 hex digits, zero-padded to the appropriate length (U+0041 for ASCII 'A', U+1F44B for emoji). Understanding this structure helps navigate Unicode documentation and identify why certain characters require more bytes in UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoding.

Why Unicode Code Points Matter

Cross-platform character compatibility relies on Unicode code points to ensure consistent text representation. When you specify U+00A9 for ©, it renders identically on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, regardless of font or system encoding. This universality eliminates the legacy encoding conflicts (Windows-1252 vs ISO-8859-1) that caused garbled text in older systems. For web development, using Unicode code points in HTML (© or ©) or CSS (content: '\00A9') guarantees that special characters display correctly across all browsers.

Emoji and symbol integration requires Unicode code points to programmatically insert characters that are difficult to type. Developers reference emoji lists like U+1F600 (😀) to add reactions, icons, or decorative elements without relying on font-specific symbols. For design systems and style guides, maintaining a library of Unicode code points ensures that all team members use identical symbols. Code points also enable dynamic content generation—building systems can generate symbols, math equations, or internationalized text by programmatically combining Unicode characters.

Debugging encoding issues becomes manageable when you can inspect Unicode code points. If a user reports seeing � (U+FFFD, replacement character) instead of emoji, examining code points reveals that the data is UTF-8 but the renderer expects ASCII, or vice versa. Comparing the expected code point (U+1F44B) with what was received (U+FFFD) pinpoints where encoding broke down—at input, storage, or output. This diagnostic capability is essential for multilingual applications where character encoding bugs are common and difficult to trace without code-point-level inspection.

Common Unicode Code Point Challenges

Surrogate pairs complicate JavaScript string handling for characters beyond the BMP (code points > U+FFFF). JavaScript strings use UTF-16 encoding where high code points are split into two 16-bit surrogates. For example, 👋 (U+1F44B) is stored as two surrogates (U+D83D U+DC4B), making string.length report 2 instead of 1. This causes bugs when slicing, indexing, or iterating strings. Use modern JavaScript string iteration (for...of loops, Array.from, or string iterators) that correctly handles surrogate pairs as single characters.

Combining characters and grapheme clusters produce visually single characters from multiple code points. For example, é can be represented as a single code point (U+00E9) or as e (U+0065) + combining acute accent (U+0301). Both appear identical but have different code point sequences, causing string comparison failures. Skin tone emoji use combining modifiers: 👋🏽 is U+1F44B (waving hand) + U+1F3FD (medium skin tone). Always normalize Unicode strings (NFC or NFD normalization) before comparison to ensure that visually identical text matches correctly.

Code point notation variations confuse developers unfamiliar with different formats. Unicode.org uses U+XXXX, HTML uses &#xXXXX;, CSS uses \XXXX, JavaScript uses \uXXXX (BMP) or \u{XXXXX} (full Unicode), and programming languages vary. When copying code points from documentation, verify the format required by your context. For example, U+1F44B must be written as \u{1F44B} in JavaScript, \U0001F44B in Python, or 👋 in HTML. Provide conversion tools or documentation to help developers translate between notation systems.

Best Practices for Unicode Code Points

Use Unicode code points explicitly for clarity when working with special characters or emoji. Instead of hardcoding symbols like © or 👋 in source code (which may render incorrectly depending on editor encoding), use code points: \u00A9 in JavaScript, \u{1F44B} for emoji, or HTML entities ©. This approach ensures that characters render consistently regardless of source file encoding (UTF-8, UTF-16) and makes code more maintainable by clearly documenting which symbols are used.

Normalize Unicode strings before comparison, storage, or processing to handle composed vs decomposed characters. Use NFC normalization for web content (composes é to U+00E9) or NFD for text processing (decomposes é to e + combining accent). In JavaScript, use string.normalize('NFC') before comparing or hashing strings. For database storage, store normalized text to prevent duplicate records where 'café' (composed) and 'café' (decomposed) are treated as different values. Normalization ensures consistent behavior across systems.

Reference official Unicode documentation (unicode.org) when selecting code points for symbols, emoji, or international characters. The Unicode Character Database (UCD) provides canonical names, properties, and usage notes for all characters. For emoji, consult unicode.org/emoji/charts to find official code points and avoid deprecated or non-standard sequences. Maintain a project-specific character reference sheet documenting code points for commonly used symbols, ensuring team-wide consistency and preventing ad-hoc symbol choices that may lack universal support.

Loading tool…

Unicode Converter - Convert Unicode Code Points to Text

Convert Unicode code points (U+XXXX) to characters and vice versa.

Transform Unicode code points into actual characters and convert characters back to their Unicode representations. Perfect for working with emoji, special symbols, international characters, and debugging encoding issues. Supports all Unicode ranges including emoji and rare characters.

Keywords

#unicode converter#unicode to text#code point converter#unicode decoder#character encoder

Looking for more? Explore other Encoders tools