awk 'BEGIN{for (i = 0; i < 256; ++i) {ord[sprintf("%c", i)] = i;} }'  ' { print ord['a'];  ord ['b']; }'

-(dearvoid@LinuxEden:Forum)-(~/tmp)- [$$=18347 $?=0] ; cat foo.awk #!/bin/awk -f BEGIN {     for (ii = 0; ii < 256; ++ii) {         ch = sprintf("%c", ii);         ascii[ch] = ii;     }     for (ii = 1; ii < ARGC; ii++) {         print "ord(" ARGV[ii] " = " ascii[ARGV[ii]];     } } -(dearvoid@LinuxEden:Forum)-(~/tmp)- [$$=18347 $?=0] ; ./foo.awk a b c 1 2 3 ord(a) = 97 ord(b) = 98 ord(c) = 99 ord(1) = 49 ord(2) = 50 ord(3) = 51 -(dearvoid@LinuxEden:Forum)-(~/tmp)- [$$=18347 $?=0] ; bye