LEN
Supported, behaves as documentedCategory: Text · Last tested 2026-09-01
Real compatibility results for the LEN function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.
Support matrix
| Engine | Documented | Live-tested | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | Yes | No — documented only | n/a |
| Excel for the web | — | Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01) | Supported, behaves as documented |
| Google Sheets | Yes | Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-29) | Supported, behaves as documented |
| LibreOffice Calc | Yes | Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-07-29) | Supported, behaves as documented |
LibreOffice version history
We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when LEN’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.
| LibreOffice version | Verdict | Tested |
|---|---|---|
| 24.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 24.8.7.2 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 25.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 25.8.7.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-07-29 |
Executed test cases
Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)
These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =LEN("Hello") | Basic character count | 5 | 5 | Matched |
| =LEN(A1) | A numeric cell value is coerced to text before its digits are counted | 5 | 5 | Matched |
| =LEN(" Hi ") | Leading and trailing spaces are counted as characters just like any other character | 6 | 6 | Matched |
| =LEN("") | Empty string has length 0 | 0 | 0 | Matched |
Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-29 via Drive import)
Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =LEN("Hello") | Basic character count | 5 | 5 | Matched |
| =LEN(A1) | A numeric cell value is coerced to text before its digits are counted | 5 | 5 | Matched |
| =LEN(" Hi ") | Leading and trailing spaces are counted as characters just like any other character | 6 | 6 | Matched |
| =LEN("") | Empty string has length 0 | 0 | 0 | Matched |
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-07-29)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =LEN("Hello") | Basic character count | 5 | 5 | Matched |
| =LEN(A1) | A numeric cell value is coerced to text before its digits are counted | 5 | 5 | Matched |
| =LEN(" Hi ") | Leading and trailing spaces are counted as characters just like any other character | 6 | 6 | Matched |
| =LEN("") | Empty string has length 0 | 0 | 0 | Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel (desktop): official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation
Related how-to recipes
- How to capitalize only the first letter (sentence case)
- How to count characters in a cell
- How to count items in a comma-separated cell
- How to count occurrences of a substring in a cell
- How to count the total words in a range
- How to count the number of words in a cell
- How to extract the domain from an email address
- How to extract the last name from a full name
- How to extract numbers from text in a cell
- How to remove text before a character
- How to remove the first N characters from a cell
- How to reverse a text string
- How to truncate text with an ellipsis
Where LEN behaves differently
- LENB and CJK text: 4 in Sheets and LibreOffice, 2 in Excel for the web
Microsoft's archived LEN/LENB page says LENB counts 2 bytes per character only under a DBCS default language, otherwise 1. Executed under a non-DBCS locale, =LENB("日本") returned 4 in Google Sheets and all four LibreOffice builds - but 2, the documented answer, in Excel for the web. Desktop Excel stays documentation only.