how to unlock phone with damaged screen

You cannot. You will have to get the screen repaired for this to work.

Axel F.

How damaged is it? I've seen damaged touchscreens that otherwise worked, but not necessarily long term. Saw one that worked well for about a year then started showing signs of ghost touch. That can be bad because it could be logged as unsuccessful passcode attempts.

But if you simply need to get it unlocked to pull the data, it might be possible to do that with a temporary front screen assembly.

Apple could do it for you, but if your data is more important, remember that Apple reserves the right to replace the entire device at a screen repair price, or they could reset the device for any number of reasons. Just something to consider.