The SQLite LENGTH function is a built-in string function that is used to return the number of characters in a specified string expression.
Syntax
The syntax for using the LENGTH function is:
LENGTH(string_expression)
Where string_expression is the input string whose length needs to be calculated.
The LENGTH function works on any string data type in SQLite, including TEXT, VARCHAR, CHAR, and BLOB. It returns an integer value representing the number of characters in the input string.
Example
Here’s an example that demonstrates the use of the LENGTH function in SQLite:
SELECT LENGTH('Hello World!');
This query will return the value 12 because the input string ‘Hello World!’ contains 12 characters.
It’s important to note that the LENGTH function counts the number of characters in a string, not the number of bytes. So, for example, if you have a string that contains Unicode characters, the length of the string returned by the LENGTH function will be the number of characters in the string, not the number of bytes used to store the string.
In conclusion, the SQLite LENGTH function is a useful tool for calculating the length of a string in SQLite. It can be used to perform a variety of operations, such as checking the length of input strings, trimming strings, and formatting output.