Syntax

CHAR_LENGTH(str)

Description

Returns the length of the given string argument, measured in characters. A multi-byte character counts as a single character. This means that for a string containing five two-byte characters, LENGTH() (or OCTET_LENGTH() in Oracle mode) returns 10, whereas CHAR_LENGTH() returns 5. If the argument is NULL, it returns NULL.

If the argument is not a string value, it is converted into a string.

It is synonymous with the CHARACTER_LENGTH() function.

Until MariaDB 10.3.1, returns MYSQL_TYPE_LONGLONG, or bigint(10), in all cases. From MariaDB 10.3.1, returns MYSQL_TYPE_LONG, or int(10), when the result would fit within 32-bits.

Examples

SELECT CHAR_LENGTH('MariaDB');
+------------------------+
| CHAR_LENGTH('MariaDB') |
+------------------------+
|                      7 |
+------------------------+

SELECT CHAR_LENGTH('π');
+-------------------+
| CHAR_LENGTH('π')  |
+-------------------+
|                 1 |
+-------------------+

See Also

• LENGTH()
• OCTET_LENGTH()
• Oracle mode from MariaDB 10.3