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 )

bigint if expression is of the varchar(max), nvarchar(max) or varbinary(max) data types; otherwise, int.

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