### 8.120 `ICHAR` — Character-to-integer conversion function

Description:
  `ICHAR(C)` returns the code for the character in the first character position of `C` in the system's native character set. The correspondence between characters and their codes is not necessarily the same across different GNU Fortran implementations.
Standard:
  Fortran 95 and later, with KIND argument Fortran 2003 and later
Class:
  Elemental function
Syntax:
  `RESULT = ICHAR(C [, KIND])`
Arguments:

  C | Shall be a scalar `CHARACTER`, with `INTENT(IN)`
  KIND | (Optional) An `INTEGER` initialization expression indicating the kind parameter of the result.

Return value:
  The return value is of type `INTEGER` and of kind KIND. If KIND is absent, the return value is of default integer kind.
Example:

                program test_ichar
                  integer i
                  i = ichar(' ')
                end program test_ichar

Specific names:

  Name | Argument | Return type | Standard
  `ICHAR(C)` | `CHARACTER C` | `INTEGER(4)` | Fortran 77 and later

Note:
  No intrinsic exists to convert between a numeric value and a formatted character string representation – for instance, given the `CHARACTER` value `'154'`, obtaining an `INTEGER` or `REAL` value with the value 154, or vice versa. Instead, this functionality is provided by internal-file I/O, as in the following example:

                program read_val
                  integer value
                  character(len=10) string, string2
                  string = '154'

                  ! Convert a string to a numeric value
                  read (string,'(I10)') value
                  print *, value

                  ! Convert a value to a formatted string
                  write (string2,'(I10)') value
                  print *, string2
                end program read_val

See also:
  ACHAR, CHAR, IACHAR