ASC

The ASC function in Google Sheets converts full-width (double-byte) ASCII and katakana characters into their half-width (single-byte) equivalents, which is especially useful when cleaning up text imported from Japanese-language sources. Standard half-width characters are left untouched. Dive into our comprehensive guide to master its application.

Parameters

• text: The text containing full-width characters to be converted to half-width.

Step-by-Step Tutorial

1. Using ASC with full-width characters:

   • Example: =ASC("Ａ１２３")
   • Result: A123 (full-width letters and digits converted to half-width)

2. Using ASC with already half-width text:

   • Example: =ASC("Hello")
   • Result: Hello (unchanged, since the text is already half-width)

Use Cases and Scenarios

1. Data Cleanup: Normalize text imported from systems that use full-width characters.
2. Localization: Prepare Japanese-language spreadsheet data for consistent formatting.
3. Text Standardization: Ensure uniform character widths before performing text comparisons or lookups.

Related Functions

• TRIM: Removes leading, trailing, and repeated spaces from text.
• CLEAN: Removes non-printable characters from text.
• UNICODE: Returns the decimal Unicode value of the first character of text.

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