Len Function

Description

Returns the number of characters in a string or the number of bytes required to store a variable.

Syntax

Len(string | varname)

The Len function syntax has these parts:

Part	Description

string	Any valid string expression. If string contains no valid data, Null is returned.
varname	Any valid variable name. If varname contains no valid data, Null is returned.

Remarks

Caution

Len may not be able to determine the actual number of storage bytes required when used with user-defined data types.

Note

Another function (LenB) is provided for use with the double-byte character sets (DBCS) used in some Asian locales. Instead of returning the number of characters in a string, LenB returns the number of bytes used to represent that string. In areas where DBCS is not used, LenB behaves the same as Len.

See Also

InStr Function.

Example

This example uses the Len function to return the number of characters in a string or the number of bytes required to store a variable.

Type CustomerRecord    ' Define user-defined type.
    ID As Integer
    Name As String * 10
    Address As String * 30
End Type
Dim Customer As CustomerRecord    ' Declare variables.
Dim MyInt As Integer, MyCur As Currency
MyString = "Hello World"    ' Initialize.
MyLen = Len(MyInt)    ' Returns 2.
MyLen = Len(Customer)    ' Returns 42.
MyLen = Len(MyString)    ' Returns 11.
MyLen = Len(MyCur)    ' Returns 8.