Using the new UNISTR function to display Unicode characters

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Changes to SQL introduced in SQL Server 2025 Part four of a five-part series of blogs
In addition to handling AI models, vectors of data and JSON, SQL now includes a number of other new functions and features (as this blog explains) REGEX regular expression functions Fuzzy string matching Getting the current date (and not the date/time) Using the new UNISTR function to display Unicode characters (this blog) Encoding binary files as text for transfer using BASE64_ENCODE

Changes to SQL introduced in SQL Server 2025

Part four of a five-part series of blogs

In addition to handling AI models, vectors of data and JSON, SQL now includes a number of other new functions and features (as this blog explains)

REGEX regular expression functions
Fuzzy string matching
Getting the current date (and not the date/time)
Using the new UNISTR function to display Unicode characters (this blog)
Encoding binary files as text for transfer using BASE64_ENCODE

Posted by Andy Brown on 25 November 2025

For lovers of Unicode characters (I confess I'm not one of them), there's a new UNISTR function which allows you to show special characters in a simple way. This function takes two arguments:

Argument	Used for	Status
1	A character expression	Compulsory
2	A Unicode escape character	Optional (defaults to \)

I'm far from an expert on this subject, but to give you a flavour here is how you could show a Christmas message complete with emojis using the new function:

SELECT

-- Result: I ?? Christmas

UNISTR(N'I \2764 Christmas') as YuleMessage,

-- SResult: Happy face: ??

UNISTR(N'Happy face: \+01F603') AS HappyFace

Here's the output this would give:

The results from running the above single statement query.

You can often use the old-fashioned NCHAR function or new UNISTR function to do the same thing, as this example shows:

-- 3 ways to do the same thing

SELECT

N'Hello! ' + NCHAR(0xd83d) + NCHAR(0xde00) as 'Using NCHAR',

UNISTR(N'Hello! \D83D\DE00') as 'Using UNISTR - 1',

UNISTR(N'Hello! \+01F603') as 'Using UNISTR - 2'

Here's what this would give:

All 3 expressions show the same thing.

And with that, I think I'm done on the new UNISTR function!

Parts of this blog
REGEX regular expression functions Fuzzy string matching Getting the current date (and not the date/time) Using the new UNISTR function to display Unicode characters (this blog) Encoding binary files as text for transfer using BASE64_ENCODE