In MySQL, the CHAR_LENGTH() function returns the length of a string, measured in characters. MySQL also has CHARACTER_LENGTH(), which is a synonym for CHAR_LENGTH().
Here’s an example:
SELECT CHAR_LENGTH('Lit');
And here’s the result:
+--------------------+
| CHAR_LENGTH('Lit') |
+--------------------+
| 3 |
+--------------------+
One of the many functions in MySQL is the LENGTH() function, which returns the length of a string, measured in bytes.
Example:
SELECT LENGTH('Lit');
Result:
+---------------+
| LENGTH('Lit') |
+---------------+
| 3 |
+---------------+
This is a simple example and the result is the same as if we’d used the CHAR_LENGTH() function. However, the LENGTH() function can return different results, depending on the data type.
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In SQL Server (and Azure), the T-SQL LEN() function returns the number of characters of a specified string expression, excluding trailing blanks.
You provide the string as an argument.
In SQL Server (and Azure), the T-SQL DATALENGTH() function returns the number of bytes used to represent any expression.
For example:
SELECT DATALENGTH('Lit');
Result:
3
In this case, there are 3 bytes in the string Lit.
However, this is a simple example. The results can look a lot different, depending on the data type.
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When using T-SQL in SQL Server (or Azure) the LEN() and DATALENGTH() functions will often return the same result, but not always. There are some cases where these functions will return completely different results for what appears to be the same data. This is because there’s an important difference between how the LEN() and DATALENGTH() functions work, as we’ll see here.
First up, here’s a quick definition of each:
LEN()DATALENGTH()Note “characters” vs “bytes”. Also note that “excluding trailing blanks” only applies to one.
Here are some examples to demonstrate the differences between LEN() and DATALENGTH().
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Here I’ll show you how to install SQL Server on a Mac with VirtualBox running Windows (a free trial edition).
The result of this is that you’ll have both Windows and SQL Server running on your Mac. And because you’re using VirtualBox, switching between macOS and Windows is as easy as switching between any other application.
As mentioned, this method involves Windows. If that scares you, then you might be better off installing SQL Server on your Mac via a Docker container. That method doesn’t involve Windows in any shape or form.
But if you don’t mind using Windows (or if you need to), here are the main steps for installing SQL Server for Windows on your Mac using VirtualBox:
Below are more detailed instructions for each of these steps.
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In MySQL, you can specify the character set and collation at various levels. You can specify them at the connection level, the server level, the database level, the table level, and the column level. You can also specify a collation in your queries so that it overrides any collation that has been previously specified at the aforementioned levels.
To set the character set and collation at the database level, you can use the CREATE DATABASE statement or ALTER DATABASE statement (depending on whether you’re creating the database or modifying it).
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In MySQL, you can specify the character set and collation at various levels. You can specify them at the connection level, the server level, the database level, the table level, and the column level. You can also specify a collation in your queries so that it overrides any collation that has been previously specified at the aforementioned levels.
To set the character set and collation at the table level, you can use the CREATE TABLE statement or ALTER TABLE statement (depending on whether you’re creating the table or modifying it).
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In MySQL, you can specify the character set and collation at various levels. You can specify them at the connection level, the server level, the database level, the table level, and the column level. You can also specify a collation in your queries so that it overrides any collation that has been previously specified at the aforementioned levels.
To set the character set and collation at the column level, you can use the CREATE TABLE statement or ALTER TABLE statement (depending on whether you’re creating the table or modifying it), and specify the character set and collation within the column’s definition (the column that you want to set the character set/collation on).
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When using SQL Server, you can use T-SQL to specify the default collation of a database. Specifically, you can use the COLLATE clause of either the CREATE DATABASE or ALTER DATABASE statements.
The COLLATE clause is optional – if you don’t use it when creating the database, the database will use the default collation of the server (which was specified at the time SQL Server was installed). And if you don’t specify the clause when altering the database, its default collation won’t change.
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