The Excel LEN Function

Basic Description

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

The format of the function is :

Where the text argument is the text string that you want to find the length of. This can be supplied to the Len function as either:

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

Len Function Examples

The examples in the spreadsheet below show the Len function used to return the length of three different text strings (one of which is empty).

The formulas are shown in the spreadsheet on the left and the results are shown in the spreadsheet on the right.

Formulas

Results

Note that, in the example in cell A2 & B2 of the above spreadsheet, there are 3 spaces between the words "Test" and "String", which have all been counted as characters by the len function.

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