LENGTH
Purpose
Returns the number of characters in the string argument.
Syntax
where:
|
Syntax element… |
Specifies… |
|
TD_SYSFNLIB |
the name of the database where the function is located. |
|
string |
a character string or string expression. If string is NULL, the function returns NULL. |
ANSI Compliance
This is a Teradata extension to the ANSI SQL:2011 standard.
Invocation
LENGTH is an embedded services system function. For information on activating and invoking embedded services functions, see “Embedded Services System Functions” on page 24.
Argument Types and Rules
Expressions passed to this function must have one of the following data types:
CHAR, VARCHAR, or CLOB
You can also pass arguments with data types that can be converted to the above types using the implicit data type conversion rules that apply to UDFs.
Note: The UDF implicit type conversion rules are more restrictive than the implicit type conversion rules normally used by Teradata Database. If an argument cannot be converted to the required data type following the UDF implicit conversion rules, it must be explicitly cast.
For details, see “Compatible Types” in SQL External Routine Programming.
Result Type
The result data type is NUMBER.
Example
The following query returns the result 7.
SELECT LENGTH('astring');