OCTET_LENGTH¶

Calculates the number of bytes in a string.

Note

This function is supported on TEXT 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¶

The following is the correct syntax for the OCTET_LENGTH function:

OCTET_LEN( text_expr ) --> INT

Arguments¶

The following table describes the OCTET_LENGTH arguments:

Parameter	Description
`text_expr`	`TEXT` expression

Returns¶

The OCTET_LENGTH function returns an integer containing the number of bytes in the string.

Notes¶

The following notes are applicable to the OCTET_LENGTH function:

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

Length in Characters and Bytes of Strings¶

The Length in characters and bytes of strings example is based on the following table and contents:

CREATE TABLE alphabets(line TEXT(50));

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

ASCII characters take up 1 byte per character, while Thai takes up 3 bytes and Hebrew takes up 2 bytes, as shown below:

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