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    LEN

    Text

    Returns the number of characters in a text string, including spaces.

    Translations
    EnglishLEN
    FrenchNBCAR
    SpanishLARGO
    GermanLÄNGE
    ItalianLUNGHEZZA
    PortugueseNÚM.CARACT
    DutchLENGTE
    PolishDŁ
    RussianДЛСТР
    TurkishUZUNLUK
    CzechDÉLKA
    HungarianHOSSZ
    SwedishLÄNGD
    DanishLÆNGDE
    FinnishPITUUS
    Syntax
    LEN(text)

    Arguments

    • textThe text string to measure
    Examples
    =LEN("Hello")
    5

    Returns 5 characters

    =LEN(A1)
    Length of A1

    Counts characters in cell A1

    =LEN(TRIM(A1))
    Trimmed length

    Length without extra spaces

    Tips & Best Practices
    • •Counts all characters including spaces
    • •Use TRIM first to ignore extra spaces
    • •Numbers are converted to text for counting
    Common Mistakes
    • •Expecting LEN to count words instead of characters - a five-word sentence isn't 5, it's the total character count including spaces
    • •Not accounting for trailing or leading spaces, which LEN counts even though they're invisible
    • •Using LEN on a number formatted with currency symbols or commas, expecting it to count only the digits
    Related Functions
    TRIMRemoves extra spaces before you measure length, so LEN gives an accurate count
    LEFTOften combined with LEN to extract everything except the last few characters
    FINDLocates a character's position, often paired with LEN to calculate a substring's length
    Frequently Asked Questions

    Why is LEN counting more characters than I can see?

    There are probably invisible trailing spaces or a line break in the cell - wrap the reference in TRIM to check.

    Does LEN count spaces?

    Yes, every space counts as one character, whether it's between words or at the start or end of the text.

    How do I count words instead of characters?

    There's no direct word-count function, but you can approximate it by counting spaces: LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1.

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