Measure the length of ordinary text.
SQL: Use the engine’s text-length function; this ASCII example has no trailing spaces.
SELECT LENGTH('hello');Expected output EXAMPLE
5
Details
Run in a scratch SQL database. These portable examples are executed on both PostgreSQL and SQLite. Result rows below use | between columns, without headers; client display formatting may differ. Use the engine’s text-length function; this ASCII example has no trailing spaces. The CREATE and INSERT statements provide all input data. Run the complete example in a fresh scratch database or schema.
SQL Server LEN excludes trailing spaces. Character and byte lengths are different concepts for Unicode text.
Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · SQLite 3.45.1; PostgreSQL 18.6 (Debian 18.6-1.pgdg13+2) · bash 5.2.21-2ubuntu4; coreutils 9.4-3ubuntu6.3; psycopg 3.2.10; pymssql 2.3.8
Test inputs, results and environment
The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Snippet process uid 65534 with a read-only root filesystem and temporary working files. Database services use a private internal Docker network without published ports. Fresh scratch schema/database for each case; test database administrator credentials are confined to these disposable services. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.
- Architecture / host kernel
- x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
- Snippet identity / locale
- uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged process) / C.UTF-8
- Interpreter invocation
Execute the exact SQL in a fresh database/schema; serialize result rows with | separators- Container image ID
sha256:ec91410a8f6ec3e985830b5e3a0560306d36f8c1c5ccd91a6699abe707123fa3- Code SHA-256
9d9acd52be454b4d05e92b851155cfd412e981082d5e903e991966fc41a7f374- Dependencies
- bash 5.2.21-2ubuntu4; coreutils 9.4-3ubuntu6.3; psycopg 3.2.10; pymssql 2.3.8
Test input setup
These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.
# No input files required.
Observed standard output
5
Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.