8.14.1 LENGTHB

Returns the length of the target data in bytes.

Organization of this subsection

(1) Specification format

scalar-function-LENGTHB ::= LENGTHB(target-data)
 
  target-data ::= value-expression

target-data:

Specifies the target data whose length is to be determined.

The following rules apply:

Specify the target data in the form of a value expression. For details about value expressions, see 7.20 Value expression.
For the target data, specify numeric data, character string data, datetime data, or binary data.
You cannot specify a dynamic parameter by itself for the target data.

The data type of the execution result is the INTEGER type.
The NOT NULL constraint does not apply to the value of the execution result (the null value is allowed).
If the target data has a null value, the execution result will be a null value.

The following table shows the value of the execution result for each target data type.

Table 8‒58: Value of execution result for each target data type
No.	Data type of target data		Value of execution result (bytes)
1	`INTEGER`		`8`
2	`SMALLINT`		`4`
3	`DECIMAL`	When the precision is 1 to 4	`2`
4		When the precision is 5 to 8	`4`
5		When the precision is 9 to 16	`8`
6		When the precision is 17 to 38	`16`
7	`DOUBLE` `PRECISION`		`8`
8	`CHAR(n)`		`n`
9	`VARCHAR`		Actual length
10	`DATE`		`4`
11	`TIME(p)`		3 + ↑`p` ÷ 2↑
12	`TIMESTAMP(p)`		7 + ↑`p` ÷ 2↑
13	`BINARY(n)`		`n`
14	`VARBINARY`		Actual length

Example 1 (in a case where the target data is character string data)

Determine the actual lengths of the VARCHAR type data in column C1 from table T1.

The assumed character encoding is Unicode (UTF-8).

SELECT LENGTHB("C1") FROM "T1"

[Figure]

Example 2 (in a case where the target data is binary data)

Determine the actual data length for each row of columns C1 (VARBINARY(5)) and C2 (BINARY(5)) in table T1.

SELECT LENGTHB("C1"), LENGTHB("C2") FROM "T1"

[Figure]