The LENGTH() function

Informix®

Informix provides the LENGTH() function to count the number of bytes of a character string expression:

SELECT LENGTH("aaa"), LENGTH(col1) FROM table

Informix LENGTH() does not count the trailing blanks for CHAR or VARCHAR expressions, while SQLite counts the trailing blanks.

Informix LENGTH() returns 0 when the given string is empty. That means, LENGTH('')=0.

SQLite

SQLite supports the LENGTH() function, but there are some differences with Informix LENGTH().

The SQLite LENGTH() function counts trailing blanks. When using a CHAR column, values are blank padded, and the function returns the size of the CHAR column. When using a VARCHAR column, trailing blanks are significant, and the function returns the number of characters, including trailing blanks.

When passing NULL as parameter, the SQLite LENGTH() function returns NULL.

Solution

The SQL LENGTH() function name can be used with SQLite.

Check if the trailing blanks are significant when using the LENGTH() SQL function in your application.

To count the number of characters by ignoring the trailing blanks, you must use the RTRIM() function:

SELECT LENGTH(RTRIM(col1)) FROM table