how many chars in varchar record

hello

How could I check how many chars are in record, defined as varchar(8000).
It's obvious that in such defined record could be 1 char to 8000 char. But
what query to SQL database should I post to give information about realy
lenght of this records ?

thanks from advance

AdamSee LEN() and "String Functions" in Books Online.

Simon|||Select len(field)
or
Select DataLength(field)

Madhivanan|||Be careful - the two functions are not the same. LEN() returns the
number of characters after removing trailing blanks, but DATALENGTH()
returns the number of bytes stored. So you can get different results if
trailing blanks are present, if you have varchar vs char, or if you use
Unicode columns - see the code below, and Books Online for more
details.

Simon

create table #t (v varchar(10), nv nvarchar(10))

insert into #t select 'X', 'X'
insert into #t select 'X ', 'X ' -- two trailing blanks

select len(v), datalength(v), len(nv), datalength(nv)
from #t

create table #t1 (c char(10), nc nchar(10))

insert into #t1 select 'X', 'X'
insert into #t1 select 'X ', 'X ' -- two trailing blanks

select len(c), datalength(c), len(nc), datalength(nc)
from #t1|||Thanks Simon

Madhivanan|||thanx for all for valuable information!

best wishes
Adam