> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mariadb.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/char_length.md).

# CHAR\_LENGTH

## Syntax

```bnf
CHAR_LENGTH(str)
CHARACTER_LENGTH(str)
```

## Description

Returns the length of the given string argument, measured in characters. A multi-byte character counts as a single character. This means that for a string containing five two-byte characters, [LENGTH()](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/length.md) (or [OCTET\_LENGTH()](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/octet_length.md) in [Oracle mode](/docs/release-notes/community-server/about/compatibility-and-differences/sql_modeoracle.md)) returns 10, whereas `CHAR_LENGTH()` returns 5. If the argument is `NULL`, it returns `NULL`.

If the argument is not a string value, it is converted into a string.

It is synonymous with the `CHARACTER_LENGTH()` function.

## Examples

```sql
SELECT CHAR_LENGTH('MariaDB');
+------------------------+
| CHAR_LENGTH('MariaDB') |
+------------------------+
|                      7 |
+------------------------+
```

When [Oracle mode](/docs/release-notes/community-server/about/compatibility-and-differences/sql_modeoracle.md) is not set:

```sql
SELECT CHAR_LENGTH('π'), LENGTH('π'), LENGTHB('π'), OCTET_LENGTH('π');
+-------------------+--------------+---------------+--------------------+
| CHAR_LENGTH('π')  | LENGTH('π')  | LENGTHB('π')  | OCTET_LENGTH('π')  |
+-------------------+--------------+---------------+--------------------+
|                 1 |            2 |             2 |                  2 |
+-------------------+--------------+---------------+--------------------+
```

In [Oracle mode](/docs/release-notes/community-server/about/compatibility-and-differences/sql_modeoracle.md):

```
SELECT CHAR_LENGTH('π'), LENGTH('π'), LENGTHB('π'), OCTET_LENGTH('π');
+-------------------+--------------+---------------+--------------------+
| CHAR_LENGTH('π')  | LENGTH('π')  | LENGTHB('π')  | OCTET_LENGTH('π')  |
+-------------------+--------------+---------------+--------------------+
|                 1 |            1 |             2 |                  2 |
+-------------------+--------------+---------------+--------------------+
```

## See Also

* [LENGTH()](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/length.md)
* [LENGTHB()](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/lengthb.md)
* [OCTET\_LENGTH()](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/octet_length.md)
* [Oracle mode](/docs/release-notes/community-server/about/compatibility-and-differences/sql_modeoracle.md)

<sub>*This page is licensed: GPLv2, originally from*</sub> [<sub>*fill\_help\_tables.sql*</sub>](https://github.com/MariaDB/server/blob/main/scripts/fill_help_tables.sql)

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