LEN, LENB functions

This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the LEN and LENB functions in Microsoft Excel.

Description

LEN returns the number of characters in a text string.

LENB returns the number of bytes used to represent the characters in a text string.

Important: 

• These functions may not be available in all languages.

• LENB counts 2 bytes per character only when a DBCS language is set as the default language. Otherwise LENB behaves the same as LEN, counting 1 byte per character.

The languages that support DBCS include Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), and Korean.

Syntax

LEN(text)

LENB(text)

The xxx function syntax has the following arguments:

• Text    Required. The text whose length you want to find. Spaces count as characters.

Example

Example 1: LEN

Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Data
Phoenix, AZ
One
Formula	Description	Result
=LEN(A2)	Length of the first string	11
=LEN(A3)	Length of the second string	0
=LEN(A4)	Length of the third string, which includes 5 spaces	11

Example 2: LENB (with your computer set to a default language that supports DBCS)

Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Data
Phoenix, AZ
One
Formula	Description	Result
=LEN(A2)	Length of the first string	11
=LEN(A3)	Length of the second string	0
=LEN(A4)	Length of the third string, which includes 5 spaces	11