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

Many times you want to identify the row that has that column with the longest length, especially if you are troubleshooting to find out why the length of a column on a row in a table is so much longer than any other row, for instance. This query will give you the option to list an identifier on the row in order to identify which row it is.

select ID, [description], len([description]) as descriptionlength
FROM [database1].[dbo].[table1]
where len([description]) = 
 (select max(len([description]))
  FROM [database1].[dbo].[table1]