“String length” sounds simple, but different platforms count differently. This guide helps you avoid surprises when you have limits (forms, social media, databases, APIs).
With spaces vs without spaces
Some limits count every character including spaces. Others ignore whitespace. Always confirm the rules and measure accordingly.
- With spaces: counts everything you see (and some things you don’t).
- Without spaces: removes whitespace first, then counts.
Unicode pitfalls
Emojis and accented characters can be represented by multiple code points. Some “length” functions count bytes, others count code points, others count graphemes.