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

Watch out!! If there's spaces they will not be considered by the LEN method in T-SQL. Don't let this trick you and use

select max(datalength(Desc)) from table_name