ascii returns the decimal representation in the database character set of the first character of char.
char can be of datatype CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2. The value returned is of datatype NUMBER. If your database character set is 7-bit ASCII, then this function returns an ASCII value. If your database character set is EBCDIC Code, then this function returns an EBCDIC value. There is no corresponding EBCDIC character function.