title: Getting the length of a string in SQL
body: <p>I'm trying to get the length of a string in SQL (using Firebird version 2.x+).
  Whenever I select the length of a string it gives me the actual assigned maximum length of that string as opposed to getting the length of how many of the characters are taken in a record, as you can see here:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/feNUF.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/feNUF.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
  <p>as you can imagine, this does not help me, as I can't order by the length, since I'm trying to order by an attribute that has a constant length assigned.</p>
  
  <p>How would I achieve what I am trying to achieve? That is: getting the length of how many characters are taken in a string.</p>