HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation

Returns the length of the specified character string.

Format

F$LENGTH (string)

Return Value

Argument

string

Specifies the character string whose length is being determined. Specify the string argument as a character string expression.

Example

$ MESSAGE = F$MESSAGE(%X1C)
$ SHOW SYMBOL MESSAGE
  MESSAGE = "%SYSTEM-F-EXQUOTA, exceeded quota"
$ STRING_LENGTH = F$LENGTH(MESSAGE)
$ SHOW SYMBOL STRING_LENGTH
  STRING_LENGTH = 33   Hex = 00000021  Octal = 000041
 
      

The first assignment statement uses the F$MESSAGE function to return the message that corresponds to the hexadecimal value 1C. The message is returned as a character string and is assigned to the symbol MESSAGE.

The F$LENGTH function is then used to return the length of the character string assigned to the symbol MESSAGE. You do not need to use quotation marks (" ") when you use the symbol MESSAGE as an argument for the F$LENGTH function. (Quotation marks are not used around symbols in character string expressions.)

The F$LENGTH function returns the length of the character string and assigns it to the symbol STRING_LENGTH. At the end of the example, the symbol STRING_LENGTH has a value equal to the number of characters in the value of the symbol named MESSAGE, that is, 33.