DATALENGTH function [System]

Function

Returns the length of the expression in bytes.

Syntax

DATALENGTH ( expression )

Parameters

expression The expression is usually a column name. If the expression is a string constant, it must be enclosed in quotes.

Usage

Table 5-14 lists the return values of DATALENGTH.

**Table 5-14: DATALENGTH return values**
Data type	DATALENGTH
SMALLINT	2
INTEGER	4
DOUBLE	8
CHAR	Length of the data
BINARY	Length of the data

Example

The following statement returns the value 35, the longest string in the company_name column:

SELECT MAX( DATALENGTH( company_name ) )
FROM customer

Standards and compatibility

SQL92 Vendor extension.

Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise function implemented for Sybase IQ.

See also

“CHAR_LENGTH function [String]”

“COL_LENGTH function [System]”