8.3. String Functions - 8.3.4. CHAR_LENGTH(), CHARACTER_LENGTH() - 《Firebird 2.5 Language Reference》

8.3.4. CHAR_LENGTH(), CHARACTER_LENGTH()

8.3.4. `CHAR_LENGTH()`, `CHARACTER_LENGTH()`

Available in

DSQL, PSQL

Syntax

  CHAR_LENGTH (string)
| CHARACTER_LENGTH (string)

Table 126. `CHAR[ACTER]_LENGTH` Function Parameter
Parameter	Description
string	An expression of a string type

Result type

INTEGER

Description

Gives the length in characters of the input string.

Notes

With arguments of type CHAR, this function returns the formal string length (i.e. the declared length of a field or variable). If you want to obtain the “logical” length, not counting the trailing spaces, right-TRIM the argument before passing it to CHAR[ACTER]_LENGTH.
BLOB support: Since Firebird 2.1, this function fully supports text BLOBs of any length and character set.

Examples

select char_length('Hello!') from rdb$database
-- returns 6
select char_length(_iso8859_1 'Grüß di!') from rdb$database
-- returns 8
select char_length
  (cast (_iso8859_1 'Grüß di!' as varchar(24) character set utf8))
from rdb$database
-- returns 8; the fact that ü and ß take up two bytes each is irrelevant
select char_length
  (cast (_iso8859_1 'Grüß di!' as char(24) character set utf8))
from rdb$database
-- returns 24: all 24 CHAR positions count