LEN (Transact-SQL)
Returns the number of characters of the specified string expression, excluding trailing blanks.
Note
To return the number of bytes used to represent an expression, use the DATALENGTH function.
Syntax
LEN (string_expression )
Arguments
- string_expression
Is the string expression to be evaluated. string_expression can be a constant, variable, or column of either character or binary data.
Return Types
bigint if expression is of the varchar(max), nvarchar(max) or varbinary(max) data types; otherwise, int.
Examples
The following example selects the number of characters and the data in FirstName for people located in Australia.
USE AdventureWorks;
GO
SELECT LEN(FirstName) AS Length, FirstName, LastName
FROM Sales.vIndividualCustomer
WHERE CountryRegionName = 'Australia';
GO