Using %LEN to find data length.

In iByte #6 we talked about using the CHECKR command to find the length of data in a field. In iByte #7 we’ll explore using the built in function %LEN. We can use %LEN combined with other built in functions for more versatile code. Looking at the CHECKR example we see that the data in field HOLIDAY has a length of 28.

DName+++++++++++ETDsFrom+++To/L+++IDc.Keywords++++++++++++++++++++

D  @SIZE                           S                                3  0   INZ(000)

D  Holiday                          S                              50

CL0N01Factor1+++++++Opcode&ExtExtended-factor2+++++++++++++++++++

C            ' '                           CHECKR      Holiday             @SIZE

                                                   
If the value for Holiday was

 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890

'Festivus for the rest of us!                      '

@SIZE would be returned with a value of 28.

%LEN

Now let’s look at this a little differently.  Say the field HOLIDAY contained (notice the blanks to the right)....

 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890

'          Festivus for the rest of us!            ’

Although the actual length of the string is 28, CHECKR would return a value of 38. This is because CHECKR will return the first non blank position moving from right to left in the example above. Using %LEN and %TRIM we can account for the blanks on the right and left of the data.  The example below would return the data length desired - 28.

CL0N01Factor1+++++++Opcode&ExtExtended-factor2+++++++++++++++++++

C                                         EVAL       @SIZE = %LEN(%TRIM(HOLIDAY))