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DAX LEN Function

The DAX LEN function in Power BI is used to return the number of characters in a text string. This function is particularly useful for tasks that require measuring the length of text strings, such as validating data input, trimming text, or preparing text for further processing.


Syntax:

LEN(<text>)

<text>: The text string whose length you want to determine.


Purpose:

The LEN function helps you understand the size of text data, which is essential for various data cleaning and transformation tasks. It can be used to ensure that text data meets certain length criteria, identify outliers, or prepare data for concatenation and extraction operations.


Example:

Suppose you have a table named "Products" with a column "ProductCode" that contains alphanumeric codes. You want to create a new column that shows the length of each product code.

You can use the LEN function as follows:

ProductCodeLength = LEN(Products[ProductCode])


Example Scenario:

Assume you have the following "Products" table:


Using the LEN function, you can calculate the length of each product code:

ProductCodeLength = LEN(Products[ProductCode])

The resulting table would be:



Handling Edge Cases:

If the <text> is an empty string, LEN returns 0.

If the <text> contains spaces, each space is counted as a character.


Example with IF:

To flag product codes that exceed a certain length:

IsLongCode = IF(LEN(Products[ProductCode]) > 6, "Yes", "No")

                                  


Example with LEFT and RIGHT:

To extract the first three and last three characters only if the length exceeds six characters:

FirstThree = 

IF(LEN(Products[ProductCode]) > 6, LEFT(Products[ProductCode], 3), "")

LastThree = 

IF(LEN(Products[ProductCode]) > 6, RIGHT(Products[ProductCode], 3), "")

                                       


Related Functions:

LEFT: Returns the specified number of characters from the start of a text string.

RIGHT: Returns the specified number of characters from the end of a text string.

MID: Returns a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at the position you specify.

CONCATENATE: Joins two text strings into one.

TRIM: Removes all spaces from a text string except for single spaces between words.

UPPER: Converts a text string to all uppercase letters.

LOWER: Converts a text string to all lowercase letters.

The LEN function in Power BI is a simple yet powerful tool for measuring the length of text strings. Understanding how to use the LEN function effectively allows you to perform precise text validations and manipulations, enhancing your data analysis and preparation capabilities in Power BI.

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