String.fromCodePoint()

The static String.fromCodePoint() method returns a string created by using the specified sequence of code points.

Syntax

String.fromCodePoint(num1)
String.fromCodePoint(num1, num2)
String.fromCodePoint(num1, num2, ..., numN)

Parameters

num1, ..., numN

A sequence of code points.

Return value

A string created by using the specified sequence of code points.

Exceptions

  • A RangeError is thrown if an invalid Unicode code point is given (e.g. "RangeError: NaN is not a valid code point").

Description

This method returns a string (and not a String object).

Because fromCodePoint() is a static method of String, you must call it as String.fromCodePoint(), rather than as a method of a String object you created.

Polyfill

The String.fromCodePoint() method has been added to ECMAScript 2015 and may not be supported in all web browsers or environments yet.

Use the code below for a polyfill:

if (!String.fromCodePoint) (function(stringFromCharCode) {
    var fromCodePoint = function(_) {
      var codeUnits = [], codeLen = 0, result = "";
      for (var index=0, len = arguments.length; index !== len; ++index) {
        var codePoint = +arguments[index];
        // correctly handles all cases including `NaN`, `-Infinity`, `+Infinity`
        // The surrounding `!(...)` is required to correctly handle `NaN` cases
        // The (codePoint>>>0) === codePoint clause handles decimals and negatives
        if (!(codePoint < 0x10FFFF && (codePoint>>>0) === codePoint))
          throw RangeError("Invalid code point: " + codePoint);
        if (codePoint <= 0xFFFF) { // BMP code point
          codeLen = codeUnits.push(codePoint);
        } else { // Astral code point; split in surrogate halves
          // https://mathiasbynens.be/notes/javascript-encoding#surrogate-formulae
          codePoint -= 0x10000;
          codeLen = codeUnits.push(
            (codePoint >> 10) + 0xD800,  // highSurrogate
            (codePoint % 0x400) + 0xDC00 // lowSurrogate
          );
        }
        if (codeLen >= 0x3fff) {
          result += stringFromCharCode.apply(null, codeUnits);
          codeUnits.length = 0;
        }
      }
      return result + stringFromCharCode.apply(null, codeUnits);
    };
    try { // IE 8 only supports `Object.defineProperty` on DOM elements
      Object.defineProperty(String, "fromCodePoint", {
        "value": fromCodePoint, "configurable": true, "writable": true
      });
    } catch(e) {
      String.fromCodePoint = fromCodePoint;
    }
}(String.fromCharCode));

Examples

Using fromCodePoint()

Valid input:

String.fromCodePoint(42);       // "*"
String.fromCodePoint(65, 90);   // "AZ"
String.fromCodePoint(0x404);    // "\u0404" == "Є"
String.fromCodePoint(0x2F804);  // "\uD87E\uDC04"
String.fromCodePoint(194564);   // "\uD87E\uDC04"
String.fromCodePoint(0x1D306, 0x61, 0x1D307); // "\uD834\uDF06a\uD834\uDF07"

Invalid input:

String.fromCodePoint('_');      // RangeError
String.fromCodePoint(Infinity); // RangeError
String.fromCodePoint(-1);       // RangeError
String.fromCodePoint(3.14);     // RangeError
String.fromCodePoint(3e-2);     // RangeError
String.fromCodePoint(NaN);      // RangeError

Compared to fromCharCode()

String.fromCharCode() cannot return supplementary characters (i.e. code points 0x010000 – 0x10FFFF) by specifying their code point. Instead, it requires the UTF-16 surrogate pair in order to return a supplementary character: 

String.fromCharCode(0xD83C, 0xDF03); // Code Point U+1F303 "Night with
String.fromCharCode(55356, 57091);   // Stars" == "\uD83C\uDF03"

String.fromCodePoint(), on the other hand, can return 4-byte supplementary characters, as well as the more common 2-byte BMP characters, by specifying their code point (which is equivalent to the UTF-32 code unit): 

String.fromCodePoint(0x1F303); // or 127747 in decimal

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript Language Specification
# sec-string.fromcodepoint

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also