String.Length Property

The Length property returns the number of Char objects in this instance, not the number of Unicode characters. The reason is that a Unicode character might be represented by more than one Char. Use the System.Globalization.StringInfo class to work with each Unicode character instead of each Char.

In some languages, such as C and C++, a null character indicates the end of a string. In the .NET Framework, a null character can be embedded in a string. When a string includes one or more null characters, they are included in the length of the total string. For example, in the following string, the substrings "abc" and "def" are separated by a null character. The Length property returns 7, which indicates that it includes the six alphabetic characters as well as the null character.

StringBuilder charactersBuilder = new StringBuilder("abc");
string characters;

charactersBuilder.Append('\0');
charactersBuilder.Append("def");

characters = charactersBuilder.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(characters.Length);

The following example demonstrates the Length property.

// Sample for String.Length
using System;

class Sample 
{
    public static void Main() 
    {
    string str = "abcdefg";
    Console.WriteLine("1) The length of '{0}' is {1}", str, str.Length);
    Console.WriteLine("2) The length of '{0}' is {1}", "xyz", "xyz".Length);
    }
}
/*
This example produces the following results:
1) The length of 'abcdefg' is 7
2) The length of 'xyz' is 3
*/

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Portable Class Library

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference