LENGTH Function

Returns the length of a non-blank character string, excluding trailing blanks, and returns 1 for a blank character string.

Category:	Character
Restriction:	I18N Level 0 functions are designed for use with Single Byte Character Sets (SBCS) only.
Tips:	DBCS equivalent function is KLENGTH.
Tips:	The LENGTH function returns a length in bytes, while the KLENGTH function returns a length in a character based unit.

Syntax

LENGTH(string)

Required Argument

string

specifies a character constant, variable, or expression.

Details

The LENGTH function returns an integer that represents the position of the rightmost non-blank character in string. If the value of string is blank, LENGTH returns a value of 1. If string is a numeric constant, variable, or expression (either initialized or uninitialized), SAS automatically converts the numeric value to a right-justified character string by using the BEST12. format. In this case, LENGTH returns a value of 12 and writes a note in the SAS log stating that the numeric values have been converted to character values.

Comparisons

The LENGTH and LENGTHN functions return the same value for non-blank character strings. LENGTH returns a value of 1 for blank character strings, whereas LENGTHN returns a value of 0.
The LENGTH function returns the length of a character string, excluding trailing blanks, whereas the LENGTHC function returns the length of a character string, including trailing blanks.
The LENGTH function returns the length of a character string, excluding trailing blanks, whereas the LENGTHM function returns the amount of memory in bytes that is allocated for a character string.

Example

The following SAS statements produce these results.

SAS Statement	Result
len=length('ABCDEF'); put len; len2=length(' '); put len2;	6 1