=over =item ord EXPR X<ord> X<encoding> =item ord Returns the numeric value of the first character of EXPR. If EXPR is an empty string, returns 0. If EXPR is omitted, uses L<C<$_>|perlvar/$_>. (Note I<character>, not byte.) For the reverse, see L<C<chr>|/chr NUMBER>. See L<perlunicode> for more about Unicode. =back