<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<refentry xml:id="function.mssql-field-length" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook">
 <refnamediv>
  <refname>mssql_field_length</refname>
  <refpurpose>Get the length of a field</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>
 
 <refsect1 role="description">
  &reftitle.description;
  <methodsynopsis>
   <type>int</type><methodname>mssql_field_length</methodname>
   <methodparam><type>resource</type><parameter>result</parameter></methodparam>
   <methodparam choice="opt"><type>int</type><parameter>offset</parameter><initializer>-1</initializer></methodparam>
  </methodsynopsis>
  <para>
   Returns the length of field no. <parameter>offset</parameter> in 
   <parameter>result</parameter>. 
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="parameters">
  &reftitle.parameters;
  <para>
   <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>result</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       The result resource that is being evaluated. This result comes from a
       call to <function>mssql_query</function>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>offset</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       The field offset, starts at 0. If omitted, the current field is used.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="returnvalues">
  &reftitle.returnvalues;
  <para>
   The length of the specified field index on success&return.falseforfailure;.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="examples">
  &reftitle.examples;
  <para>
   <example>
    <title><function>mssql_field_length</function> example</title>
    <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
// Connect to MSSQL and select the database
mssql_connect('MANGO\SQLEXPRESS', 'sa', 'phpfi');
mssql_select_db('php');

// Send a select query to MSSQL
$query = mssql_query('SELECT [name], [age] FROM [php].[dbo].[persons]');

// Print the field length
echo 'The field \'age\' has a data length of ' . mssql_field_length($query, 1);

// Free the query result
mssql_free_result($query);
?>
]]>
    </programlisting>
    &example.outputs.similar;
    <screen>
<![CDATA[
The field 'age' has a data length of 4
]]>
    </screen>
   </example>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="notes">
  &reftitle.notes;
  <note>
   <title>Note to Windows Users</title>
   <para>
    Due to a limitation in the underlying <acronym>API</acronym> used by <acronym>PHP</acronym> (MS DBLib C <acronym>API</acronym>),
    the length of <literal>VARCHAR</literal> fields is limited to 
    <emphasis>255</emphasis>. If you need to store more data, use a 
    <literal>TEXT</literal> field instead.
   </para>
  </note>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="seealso">
  &reftitle.seealso;
  <para>
   <simplelist>
    <member><function>mssql_field_name</function></member>
    <member><function>mssql_field_type</function></member>
   </simplelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

</refentry>

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