len

Returns how many items a string or list has.

Synopsis

len(value)

Description

For a string, len counts the characters, including spaces. For a list, it counts the items.

Parameters

Return value

An int.

Example

print(len("hello"))
print(len("hi there"))
print(len(""))
print(len(["a", "b", "c"]))

It prints:

5
8
0
3

Common mistake

print(len(12345))

Python stops with:

TypeError: object of type 'int' has no len()

A number has no length. To count its digits, make it a string first: len(str(12345)).

See also

range, Indexing and slicing

len in the Python documentation