MAXBYTES

The MAXBYTES function counts the number of bytes in the longest line of a multiline text expression. The result returned by MAXBYTES has the same dimensions as the specified expression.

Return Value

INTEGER

Syntax

MAXBYTES(text-expression)

Arguments

text-expression: The text expression whose bytes for each line are to be counted.

Notes

Single-Byte Characters

When you are using a single-byte character set, you can use the MAXCHARS function instead of the MAXBYTES function.

NTEXT Data Type

This function does not accept NTEXT arguments, because it is oriented toward byte-manipulation instead of character manipulation. It always returns values of type TEXT. When you must use this function on NTEXT values, use the CONVERT or TO_CHAR function to convert the NTEXT value to TEXT.

Examples

Example 17-1 Finding the Length of the Longest Line Using Bytes

You would like to know the length of the longest line in a text variable called mytext. The following example shows the value of the variable and the result returned by MAXBYTES.

The statement

SHOW mytext

produces the following output.

This is a multiline text variable. 
The longest line is this one in the middle.
The third line is short.

The statement

SHOW MAXBYTES(mytext)

produces the following output.