8.15.1 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 7.21 Value expression.
You cannot specify array data and structure data for the target data.
You cannot specify a dynamic parameter by itself for the target data.

The data type of the execution result is the BIGINT type^#.

#

If the integer data type format is a legacy format, it will be an 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 8‒61: Value of execution result for each target data type
No.	Data type of target data		Value of execution result (bytes)
1	BIGINT		8
2	INTEGER		4^#1
3	SMALLINT		2^#2
4	DECIMAL or NUMERIC	When the precision is 1 to 4	2
5		When the precision is 5 to 8	4
6		When the precision is 9 to 16	8
7		When the precision is 17 to 38	16
8	DOUBLE PRECISION or FLOAT		8
9	REAL		4
10	CHAR(`n`)		`n`
11	VARCHAR		Actual length
12	STRING		Actual length
13	DATE		4
14	TIME(`p`)		3 + ↑`p` ÷ 2↑
15	TIMESTAMP(`p`)		7 + ↑`p` ÷ 2↑
16	BINARY(`n`)		`n`
17	VARBINARY		Actual length
18	BOOLEAN		1
19	UUID		16

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]