MySQL CHAR_LENGTH() Function

The MySQL CHAR_LENGTH() function returns the length of the specified string (measured in characters). This function counts a multi-byte character as a single character.

The CHAR_LENGTH() function is a synonym for the CHARACTER_LENGTH() function.

Syntax

CHAR_LENGTH(string)

Parameters

string Required. Specify the string to return the length for.

Return Value

Returns the length of the specified string (measured in characters).

Example 1:

The example below shows the usage of CHAR_LENGTH() function.

mysql> SELECT CHAR_LENGTH('Learning SQL is FUN!');
Result: 20

mysql> SELECT CHAR_LENGTH(NULL);
Result: NULL

mysql> SELECT CHAR_LENGTH('');
Result: 0

mysql> SELECT CHAR_LENGTH(' ');
Result: 1

mysql> SELECT CHAR_LENGTH('SQL Tutorial');
Result: 12

Example 2:

Consider a database table called Employee with the following records:

EmpID	Name	City	Age	Salary
1	John	London	25	3000
2	Marry	New York	24	2750
3	Jo	Paris	27	2800
4	Kim	Amsterdam	30	3100
5	Ramesh	New Delhi	28	3000
6	Huang	Beijing	28	2800

The statement given below can be used to get the length of records of City column.

SELECT *, CHAR_LENGTH(City) AS CHAR_LENGTH_Value FROM Employee;

The query will produce the following result:

EmpID	Name	City	Age	CHAR_LENGTH_Value
1	John	London	25	6
2	Marry	New York	24	8
3	Jo	Paris	27	5
4	Kim	Amsterdam	30	9
5	Ramesh	New Delhi	28	9
6	Huang	Beijing	28	7

❮ MySQL Functions