Help Center/ Data Lake Insight/ Spark SQL Syntax Reference/ Built-In Functions/ String Functions/ length
Updated on 2023-10-25 GMT+08:00
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length

This function is used to return the length of a string.

Similar function: lengthb. The lengthb function is used to return the length of string str in bytes and return a value of the STRING type.

Syntax

length(string <str>)

Parameters

Table 1 Parameter

Parameter

Mandatory

Type

Description

str

Yes

STRING

Target string to be searched for

If the value is of the BIGINT, DOUBLE, DECIMAL, or DATETIME type, the value is implicitly converted to the STRING type for calculation. For other types of values, an error is reported.

Return Values

The return value is of the BIGINT type.

  • If the value of str is not of the STRING, BIGINT, DOUBLE, DECIMAL, or DATETIME type, an error is reported.
  • If the value of str is NULL, NULL is returned.

Example Code

  • Calculate the length of string abc. An example command is as follows:

    The value 3 is returned.

    select length('abc');
  • The value of the input parameter is NULL. An example command is as follows:

    The value NULL is returned.

    select length(null);
Parent topic: String Functions