UNICHAR
Quirk foundCategory: Text · Last tested 2026-08-06
Real, executed compatibility results for the UNICHAR function across Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice Calc — verified by actually running it. Syntax and links to each vendor’s official documentation are below.
Support matrix
| Engine | Documented | Live-tested | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excel | Yes | Not yet | n/a |
| Google Sheets | Yes | Not yet | n/a |
| LibreOffice Calc | Yes | Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-08-06) | Quirk found |
LibreOffice version history
We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when UNICHAR’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.
| LibreOffice version | Verdict | Tested |
|---|---|---|
| 24.2.0.3 | Quirk found | 2026-07-19 |
| 24.8.7.2 | Quirk found | 2026-07-19 |
| 25.2.0.3 | Quirk found | 2026-07-24 |
| 25.8.7.3 | Quirk found | 2026-08-06 |
Why isn't UNICHAR working in LibreOffice?
UNICHAR exists in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3, but it is not a drop-in match for
Excel — our executed tests found real behavioral differences (detailed in the test results on this
page). If a formula that works in Excel or Google Sheets misbehaves in LibreOffice, compare your usage
against the failing cases above before assuming your data is wrong.
Discovered quirks
- =UNICHAR(0) on LibreOffice Calc returned _x0000_, but the documented/expected result is #VALUE!. MISMATCH vs expected: expected '#VALUE!', got '_x0000_'
Executed test cases
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-06)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =UNICHAR(233) | Basic code point beyond the 7-bit ASCII/basic-Latin range (U+00E9 'e with acute') | é | é U+00E9 = 233 decimal = accented lowercase e (e-acute) |
Matched |
| =UNICHAR(UNICODE("é")) | Round trip: UNICODE() extracts the code point of an accented character, UNICHAR() converts it straight back | é | é UNICODE(char) then UNICHAR(that number) must reproduce the original character exactly |
Matched |
| =UNICHAR(128512) | Code point beyond the Basic Multilingual Plane (U+1F600 GRINNING FACE emoji), requiring a UTF-16 surrogate pair internally | 😀 | 😀 128512 decimal = U+1F600, the grinning-face emoji; modern Excel supports supplementary-plane code points via surrogate pairs |
Matched |
| =UNICHAR(0) | UNICHAR(0) is documented to raise #VALUE! (0 is not a valid character code point). Verified via https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/unichar-function-ffeb64f5-f131-44c6-b332-5cd72f0659b8 ("Number: ... Numbers <=0 ... UNICHAR returns the #VALUE! error value") | _x0000_ | #VALUE! | Mismatch |
| =UNICHAR(-1) | Negative code point is out of range -> #VALUE! per the same UNICHAR documentation as UNICHAR_zero_error | #VALUE! | #VALUE! | Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel: official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation