The BYTE-LENGTH Function

Description:

The BYTE-LENGTH function returns an integer value that is the length in bytes of argument-1. The type of this function is integer.

General Format

FUNCTION BYTE-LENGTH (argument-1)

Arguments

1. Argument-1 can be a nonnumeric literal or a data item of any class or category¹.
2. If argument-1 or any data item subordinate to argument-1 is described with the DEPENDING phrase of the OCCURS clause, the contents of the data item referenced by the data-name specified in the DEPENDING phrase are used at the time the BYTE-LENGTH function is evaluated.

Returned values

1. The returned value is an integer that is the length of argument-1 in number of bytes.
2. If any data description entry subordinate to the data description entry of argument-1 is described with the DEPENDING phrase of the OCCURS clause, then the length of argument-1 is determined in accordance with the rules of the OCCURS clause for a sending data item.
3. The returned value includes implicit FILLER characters, if any.