---
title: "What is the difference between CHAR_LENGTH and LENGTH?"  
description: "What is the difference between CHAR_LENGTH and LENGTH?"  
author: "Sumit Kesarwani"  
published: 2014-02-10  
updated: 2020-09-18  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/interview/1915/what-is-the-difference-between-char_length-and-length  
category: "mysql"  
tags: ["mysql"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# What is the difference between CHAR_LENGTH and LENGTH?

The first is, naturally, the character count. The second is byte count. For the Latin characters the numbers are the same, but they’re not the same for Unicode and other encodings.

## Answers

### Answer by Sumit Kesarwani

The first is, naturally, the character count. The second is byte count. For the Latin characters the numbers are the same, but they’re not the same for Unicode and other encodings.


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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/interview/1915/what-is-the-difference-between-char_length-and-length

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