Retrieve the maximum length of a VARCHAR column in SQL Server

Question

I want to find the longest VARCHAR in a specific column of a SQL Server table.

Here\'s an example:

ID = INT IDENTITY
DESC = VARCHAR(5000)

I         


        

Answer 1

Use the built-in functions for length and max on the description column:

SELECT MAX(LEN(DESC)) FROM table_name;

Note that if your table is very large, there can be performance issues.