Select rows from database by strlen

Question

Is there a way to select database table rows where a given value is a certain length, for example, less than 5 chars long?

In PHP that would be strlen.

Is there anything similar in MySQL?

score 79 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 31 '12 at 16:52

79

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE CHAR_LENGTH(column_name) < 5

edited Dec 31 '12 at 16:52

Aurelio De Rosa

answered Feb 19 '11 at 02:34

Derek Prior

1

All MySQL String functions are over there : http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/string-functions.html -- Enjoy ! – Benj Jan 15 '13 at 10:08
3

All programming books, algorithms, Math - are over there - http://google.com. Still enjoy this? – Arthur Kushman Jan 02 '16 at 15:29
@ArthurKushman I think you inferred snarkiness where there was none to be found. – Matt Aikens Oct 09 '20 at 18:15

Timo Huovinen · Answer 2 · 2019-05-11T08:47:22.757

9

LENGTH("my_string") Return the length of a string in bytes

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE LENGTH(column_name) < 5

Keep in mind that characters can be made up of multiple bytes like those in UTF-8.

edited May 11 '19 at 08:47

answered Sep 16 '13 at 08:53

Timo Huovinen

Which will fall over with multi-byte characters. – Derek Prior Dec 06 '13 at 03:16
@Derek thank you, I added a clarification, my answer mentioned that it returns the length in bytes, and characters can be multi-byte. – Timo Huovinen Dec 06 '13 at 08:54
Yes, but in the real world this is almost useless (without mb check). – Arthur Kushman Dec 15 '14 at 06:09
1

@zeusakm That's why we have the other answer! Now we know both ways. – Timo Huovinen Nov 24 '15 at 11:51

2 Answers2