LEN
Returns the number of characters in a string.
Synopsis
LEN(string)
Arguments
| string | An expression that resolves to a string or numeric expression. |
Description
The LEN function returns the number of characters in a specified string. LEN counts characters, not bytes. You can use the BYTELEN function to count the number of bytes in a string.
For numerics, prior to determining the length MVBasic performs all arithmetic operations and converts numbers to canonical form, with leading and trailing zeroes, a trailing decimal point, and all signs removed except a single minus sign. Note that LEN does count the decimal point and the minus sign. Numeric strings are not converted to canonical form. An empty string ("") returns a length of 0.
Examples
The following example uses the LEN function to return the number of characters in a string:
PRINT LEN("InterSystems"); ! Returns 12
PRINT LEN(+0099.900); ! Returns 4
PRINT LEN("0099.900"); ! Returns 8
PRINT LEN(CHAR(960)); ! Returns 1
PRINT LEN(""); ! Returns 0
