Returns the length of a sequence of octets measured in bytes, or in "pieces" separated by a delimiter specified by one of its arguments.
The format for the $ZLENGTH() function is:
$ZL[ENGTH](expr1[,expr2])
The first expression specifies the sequence of octets that $ZLENGTH() "measures".
The optional second expression specifies the delimiter that defines the measure; if this argument is missing, $ZLENGTH() returns the number of bytes in the sequence of octets.
If the second argument is present and not null, $ZLENGTH() returns one more than the count of the number of occurrences of the second byte sequence in the first byte sequence; if the second argument is null , the M standard for the analogous $LENGTH() dictates that $ZLENGTH() returns a zero (0).
$ZLENGTH() provides a tool for determining the lengths of a sequence of octets in two ways--bytes and pieces. The two argument $ZLENGTH() returns the number of existing pieces, while the one argument returns the number of bytes.
Example:
GTM>write $zlength("主要雨在西班牙停留在平原")
36
GTM>This uses $ZLENGTH() to WRITE the length in bytes of the sequence of octets "主要雨在西班牙停留在平原".
Example:
GTM>set x="主"_$zchar(63)_"要"_$zchar(63)_"雨" GTM>write $zlength(x,$zchar(63)) 3 GTM>
This uses $ZLENGTH() to WRITE the number of pieces in a sequence of octets, as delimited by the byte code $ZCHAR(63).
Example:
GTM>set x=$zchar(63)_"主"_$zchar(63)_"要"_$zchar(63)_"雨"_$zchar(63)" GTM>write $zlength(x,$zchar(63)) 5 GTM>
This also uses $ZLENGTH() to WRITE the number of pieces in a sequence of octets, as delimited by byte code $ZCHAR(63). Notice that GT.M counts both the empty beginning and ending pieces in the string because they are both delimited.
