Excel LEN Function

Function Description

The Excel LEN function returns the length of a supplied text string.

The syntax of the function is:

LEN( text )

Where the text argument is the text string that you want to find the length of. This can be supplied to the Len function in any of the following ways:

directly;
as a text string returned from another formula;
as a reference to a cell containing a text string.

Excel Len Function Examples

In the spreadsheet below, the Len function is used to return the length of three different text strings (one of which is empty).

Formulas:

	A	B
1	test string	=LEN( A1 )
2	test string 2	=LEN( A2 )
3		=LEN( A3 )

Results:

	A	B	C
1	test string	11
2	test string 2	13
3		0	- empty string has length 0

Further information and examples of the Excel Len function are provided on the Microsoft Office website.

The Microsoft Office website also provides a description of the Excel LenB function, which is supported by languages that use the double-byte character set (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Korean).

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