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string-length

The string-length function in XQuery is used to determine the number of characters in a given string including the leading and trailing whitespace characters. It is particularly useful for tasks that require string validation or manipulation, where the size of the string is relevant.

Syntax

fn:string-length(arg)

The following table describes the argument for this command:

Argument	Required/Optional	Description
arg	Optional	The input string whose length you want to determine. If the argument is omitted, the function defaults to using the context item; if the context item is not a string, a type error is raised. If the argument is an empty sequence ( () ), it is treated as an empty string.

Return Value

Returns an integer equal to the length in characters of the value of

$arg

. For an empty string or empty sequence, it returns

Examples

The following table lists some sample values and return values:

SAMPLE FUNCTION	OUTPUT
fn:string-length('query')	5
fn:string-length(' query ')	9
fn:string-length(normalize-space(' query '))	5
fn:string-length('xml query')	9
fn:string-length('')	0
fn:string-length(())	0
fn:string-length("Hello, World!")	13
fn:string-length(" \t")	4