How do you get the length of a string in many SQL dialects?

• A. SELECT CHAR_LENGTH(name) FROM products;
• B. SELECT LEN(name) FROM products;
• C. SELECT SIZE(name) FROM products;
• D. SELECT LENGTH(name) FROM products;

Answer: (D)

Knowing how to get the length of a string in SQL is done with the string-length function. In many SQL dialects, LENGTH(name) returns the number of characters in the string column name, so a query like SELECT LENGTH(name) FROM products would yield the length for every row. This function is widely supported across Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and others, making it a common, portable choice for counting characters.

Be mindful that some databases handle length differently. For example, in MySQL LENGTH returns the number of bytes, while CHAR_LENGTH or CHARACTER_LENGTH returns the number of characters. The other options you see are tied to specific engines or aren’t standard ways to measure string length, so they aren’t as universally reliable for this purpose.