The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of the ethanol blending in diesel-ethanol blended fuels on the spray and combustion characteristics in a common-rail four-cylinder diesel engine. For the analysis of the spray characteristics, the spray images were obtained using a high speed camera with metal-halide lamps. From these spray images, the macroscopic spray characteristics such as the spray tip penetration and spray cone angle were investigated. Also, the combustion characteristics including the combustion pressure and the rate of heat release were studied with the analysis of the exhaust emissions in diesel-ethanol blended fuel driven diesel engine. It can be confirmed from the experiment on spray characteristics of diesel-ethanol blended fuels that the increased ethanol blending ratio induced the decrease of the spray tip penetration after the end of the injection. The spray cone angle slightly increased by the blending of ethanol fuel. In the experiment on atomization characteristics, the ethanol blending caused the improvement of the diesel atomization performance. On the other hand, at the same engine load condition, the increase of the ethanol blending ratio lead to lengthen the ignition delays, and to decrease the peak combustion pressure and the rate of heat release. Totally, the combustion and emission characteristics of ULSD and DE10 showed similar characteristics. However, in the case of DE20, CO and HC rapidly increased, and $NO_x$ decreased. It can be believed that 20% ethanol disturbed the combustion of diesel-ethanol blended fuel due to the low cetane number and evaporation.