OCTET_LENGTH¶

Calculates the number of bytes in a string.

Note

This function is supported on NVARCHAR strings only.
To get the length in characters, see CHAR_LENGTH.
For VARCHAR strings, the octet length is the number of characters. Use LEN instead.

Syntax¶

OCTET_LEN( nvarchar_expr ) --> INT

Arguments¶

Parameter	Description
`nvarchar_expr`	`NVARCHAR` expression

Returns¶

Returns an integer containing the number of bytes in the string.

Notes¶

To get the length in characters, see CHAR_LENGTH
If the value is NULL, the result is NULL.

Examples¶

For these examples, consider the following table and contents:

CREATE TABLE alphabets(line NVARCHAR(50));

INSERT INTO alphabets VALUES
   ('abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'), ('กขฃคฅฆงจฉชซฌญฎฏฐฑฒณดตถทธนบปผฝพฟภมยรฤลฦวศษสหฬอฮฯ')
   , ('אבגדהוזחטיכלמנסעפצקרשת');

Length in characters and bytes of strings¶

ASCII characters take up 1 byte per character, while Thai takes up 3 bytes and Hebrew takes up 2 bytes.

t=> SELECT LEN(line), CHAR_LENGTH(line), OCTET_LENGTH(line) FROM alphabets;
len | char_length | octet_length
----+-------------+-------------
 26 |          26 |           26
 47 |          47 |          141
 22 |          22 |           44