LENGTH, LENGTHB, LENGTH4

Returns the length of a given character string in an expression. LENGTH returns type NUMBER.

SQL syntax

{LENGTH|LENGTHB|LENGTH4} (CharExpr) 

Parameters

LENGTH has the parameter:

Parameter	Description
CharExpr	The string for which to return the length. Supported data types for CharExpr for are CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2. LENGTH and LENGTHB also support CLOB, NCLOB, and BLOB data types.

Description

The LENGTH functions return the length of CharExpr. LENGTH calculates the length using characters as defined by the character set. LENGTHB uses bytes rather than characters. LENGTH4 uses UCS4 code points.

Examples

Determine the length of the string 'William':

Command> SELECT LENGTH('William') FROM dual;
< 7 >
1 row found.

The following determines the length of the NCLOB data:

Command> SELECT nclob_column FROM nclob_content;
< Demonstration of the NCLOB data type >
1 row found.

Command> SELECT LENGTH(nclob_column) FROM nclob_content;
< 36 >
1 row found.