created May 7, 2001 · complexity intermediate · author Erhan · version 5.7
You can learn the ASCII or Unicode value of the character under the cursor by pressing ga in command mode or :as / :ascii on the command line . This displays the value of the current character in decimal, hex and octal. (Think "get ascii.") The characterize plugin overrides this command to provide even more useful information for Unicode characters, such as any digraphs Vim has defined to enter the character.
Seeing ASCII/Unicode values in the status line
You can also add options to the statusline option to show the ASCII/Unicode value of the character under the cursor.
:set statusline=%<%f%h%m%r%=%b\ 0x%B\ \ %l,%c%V\ %P
It's the %b\ 0x%B that does the trick. Note that you may need to :set laststatus=2 so that the status line is visible in with only one window showing.