LENGTH Function [String]

Returns the number of characters in the specified string.

Syntax

LENGTH ( string-expression )

Parameters

Parameters
Parameter	Description
string-expression	The string.

Returns

INT

Example

The following statement returns the value 9:

SELECT LENGTH( 'chocolate' ) FROM iq_dummy

Usage

If the string contains multibyte characters, and the proper collation is being used, LENGTH returns the number of characters, not the number of bytes. If the string is of BINARY data type, the LENGTH function behaves as BYTE_LENGTH.

The LENGTH function is the same as the CHAR_LENGTH function.

Standards and Compatibility

SQL—Vendor extension to ISO/ANSI SQL grammar.
Sybase—Not supported by Adaptive Server Enterprise. Use the CHAR_LENGTH function instead.