COL_LENGTH takes two arguments, the table name and the column name. : COL_LENGTH « System Functions « SQL Server / T-SQL Tutorial

1. SQL Server / T-SQL Tutorial
2. System Functions
3. COL_LENGTH

What it returns is the defined length of the particular column.

5>
6> CREATE TABLE publishers(
7>    pub_id         char(4)           NOT NULL,
8>    pub_name       varchar(40)           NULL,
9>    city           varchar(20)           NULL,
10>    state          char(2)               NULL,
11>    country        varchar(30)           NULL DEFAULT('USA')
12> )
13> GO
1>
2>
3> insert publishers values('1', 'Publisher A', 'Vancouver',  'MA', 'USA')
4> insert publishers values('2', 'Publisher B', 'Washington', 'DC', 'USA')
5> insert publishers values('3', 'Publisher C', 'Berkeley',   'CA', 'USA')
6> insert publishers values('4', 'Publisher D', 'New York',   'NY', 'USA')
7> insert publishers values('5', 'Publisher E', 'Chicago',    'IL', 'USA')
8> insert publishers values('6', 'Publisher F', 'Dallas',     'TX', 'USA')
9> insert publishers values('7', 'Publisher G', 'Vancouver',  'BC', 'Canada')
10> insert publishers values('8', 'Publisher H', 'Paris',      NULL, 'France')
11> GO

(1 rows affected)

(1 rows affected)

(1 rows affected)

(1 rows affected)

(1 rows affected)

(1 rows affected)

(1 rows affected)

(1 rows affected)
1>      SELECT COL_LENGTH('publishers', 'pub_id')
2> GO

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     4

(1 rows affected)
1>
2> drop table publishers;
3> GO
1>