LEN()

LEN returns the number of characters of the specified string expression, excluding trailing spaces.

Signature

LEN ( string_expression )

Parameters

string_expression — The string expression to be evaluated. *string_expression* can be a constant, variable, or column of either character or binary data.

Examples

SELECT LEN('keyboard') AS len, LEN('keyboard   ') AS trailing_spaces_ignored, DATALENGTH('keyboard   ') AS bytes;

len         trailing_spaces_ignored bytes
----------- ----------------------- -----------
          8                       8          11

Run against SQL Server 16.0.4265.3 on 2026-09-13. This is the output we got, not the documentation’s.

Available on

SQL Server 2017 and later
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure Synapse Analytics
Analytics Platform System (PDW)
Microsoft Fabric warehouse
Fabric SQL database

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Signature and description adapted from the Microsoft SQL documentation, used under the CC BY 4.0. SQL Server and Azure are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. This page is not affiliated with Microsoft.