LENGTH
Returns the length of a string in bytes.
MySQL 8.1
LENGTH(str)Parameters
- strVARCHAR
- String to measure
Return value
An integer length in bytes, not characters
Examples
Length of a string
MySQL 8.1
SELECT LENGTH('sql-academy');Bytes and characters in Cyrillic
MySQL 8.1
SELECT LENGTH('привет') AS bytes,
CHAR_LENGTH('привет') AS chars;Details
In utf8mb4 a Latin letter or a digit takes 1 byte, a Cyrillic letter takes 2 bytes, the € sign takes 3 and an emoji takes 4. To count characters, use CHAR_LENGTH. In PostgreSQL, the function with the same name LENGTH counts characters, not bytes, so the result for Cyrillic changes when a query is moved between the DBMSs.