Max length of data in a column

• htt

  SSCertifiable

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  December 5, 2002 at 5:59 pm

  #58547

  Hi,

  I have a column as varchar (4000). I'd like to know how long the actual longest value is. I've seen it somewhere, sysindexes table or schema.info table, but can't recall.

  Thx.

• Steve Jones - SSC Editor

  SSC Guru

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  December 5, 2002 at 6:40 pm

  #443384

  max(len())

  Steve Jones

  sjones@sqlservercentral.com

  http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones

• don1941

  SSCarpal Tunnel

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  December 5, 2002 at 7:53 pm

  #443387

  information_schema will show you the defined length but since you already know that, use steve's answer to find the actual value length stored therein.

• Simon Sabin

  SSCrazy Eights

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  December 9, 2002 at 6:54 am

  #443731

  FYI if you use text or ntext you have to use DATALENGTH (divide by 2 for ntext)

  Simon Sabin

  Co-author of SQL Server 2000 XML Distilled

  http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904347088

  
  Simon Sabin
  SQL Server MVP
  
  http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/simons