Using SQL Length Function to Get String Length With Example

SQL LENGTH Function Summary: In this article, you will learn What is SQL Server LENGTH() function and How to use to Get String Length or the number of characters in a string.

Definition and Usage

The SQL LENGTH function returns the String Length or number of characters in a string. The LENGTH in SQL function is available in every relational database systems. Furthermore, few database systems use the SQL LEN function that has the same effect as the LENGTH function.

SQL LENGTH Function Syntax

The following syntax shows the LENGTH() function:

LENGTH(string)

In this syntax:

string: Required. If the input string is empty, the LENGTH Function returns the 0. if the input string is NULL then It returns NULL
Therefore, the number of characters is the same as the number of bytes for the ASCII strings in SQL Server. For other character sets, its may be different.

Note:Important Note: In SQL Server LENGTH function returns the number of bytes in some relational database systems like as as MySQL and PostgreSQL. Furthermore, to get the number of characters in a string in MySQL and PostgreSQL, you use the SQL CHAR_LENGTH function instead.

SQL LENGTH Function Examples

A) Using SQL LENGTH() function with a literal string

The given below statement uses the LENGTH function to return the number of characters in the string.

SELECT LENGTH('SQL');
SELECT LENGTH('SQL Server');
SELECT LENGTH('SQL Server Tutorial');
SELECT LENGTH('TutorialScan.com');

SELECT LENGTH('SQL');

SELECT LENGTH('SQL Server');

SELECT LENGTH('SQL Server Tutorial');

SELECT LENGTH('TutorialScan.com');

SQL LENGTH function

B) Using SQL Server LENGTH() function with a column

The following given below Persons table to used for demonstration.

PersonID	Name	Address	City
1	Noah Elijah	Bridgetown	Barbados
2	William Josiah	Brussels	Belgium
3	Elijah Connor	Zagreb	Croatia
4	Benjamin Hunter	San Jose	Costa Rica
5	Alexander Landon	Roseau	Dominica
6	Jacob Jonathan	Paris	France
7	Daniel Jeremiah	Libreville	Gabon
8	Owen Dominic	Athens	Greece
9	Gabriel Roman	Tegucigalpa	Honduras
10	Mateo Ezekiel	Budapest	Hungary

The following given below statement used the LENGTH() function to return the person name, city and its length, also sorts the name by the length of the person name.

SELECT
    Name,
    LENGTH(Name) person_name_length,
	City,
	LENGTH(City) person_city_lenght
FROM
    Persons
ORDER BY
    LEN(Name) DESC;

SELECT

Name,

LENGTH(Name) person_name_length,

City,

LENGTH(City) person_city_lenght

FROM

Persons

ORDER BY

LEN(Name) DESC;

LENGTH in SQL
Let see another example to understand the SQL LENGTH Function with a column.

SELECT 
    PersonID,
    CONCAT(Name, ' ', Address) AS person_name_address,
    LEN(CONCAT(Name, ' ', Address)) AS len
FROM
    Persons
ORDER BY len DESC

SELECT

PersonID,

CONCAT(Name, ' ', Address) AS person_name_address,

LEN(CONCAT(Name, ' ', Address)) AS len

FROM

Persons

ORDER BY len DESC

tsql length

C) Using LENGTH Function with WHERE Condition

In this example, we used the persons table data and also used the LENGTH function inside the SQL Where Clause.

For instance, The following query will check whether the length of a Address, City is greater than 8 or not. If the given condition is TRUE, then the SELECT Statement will display the records.

SELECT [Name],
       [Address],
       LENGTH([Address]) AS [Address Length],
       [City],
       LENGTH([City]) AS [City Length]
 FROM [Persons]
 WHERE LENGTH([Address]) > 8

SELECT [Name],

[Address],

LENGTH([Address]) AS [Address Length],

[City],

LENGTH([City]) AS [City Length]

FROM [Persons]

WHERE LENGTH([Address]) > 8

example

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you have learned What is SQL Server LENGTH() function and How to use this function with different conditions to Get String Length or the number of characters in a string. I hope you will enjoy! if have any query, contact me, I have try to resolve the problem.