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.TH "STRING-LENGTH" "1" "Nov 13, 2025" "4.2" "fish-shell"
.SH NAME
string-length \- print string lengths
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fBstring\fP \fBlength\fP [\fB\-q\fP | \fB\-\-quiet\fP] [\fB\-V\fP | \fB\-\-visible\fP] [\fISTRING\fP \&...]
.fi
.sp
.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
\fBstring length\fP reports the length of each string argument in characters. Exit status: 0 if at least one non\-empty \fISTRING\fP was given, or 1 otherwise.
.sp
With \fB\-V\fP or \fB\-\-visible\fP, it uses the visible width of the arguments. That means it will discount escape sequences fish knows about, account for $fish_emoji_width and $fish_ambiguous_width. It will also count each line (separated by \fB\en\fP) on its own, and with a carriage return (\fB\er\fP) count only the widest stretch on a line. The intent is to measure the number of columns the \fISTRING\fP would occupy in the current terminal.
.SH EXAMPLES
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
>_ string length \(aqhello, world\(aq
12

>_ set str foo
>_ string length \-q $str; echo $status
0
# Equivalent to test \-n \(dq$str\(dq

>_ string length \-\-visible (set_color red)foobar
# the set_color is discounted, so this is the width of \(dqfoobar\(dq
6

>_ string length \-\-visible 🐟🐟🐟🐟
# depending on $fish_emoji_width, this is either 4 or 8
# in new terminals it should be
8

>_ string length \-\-visible abcdef\er123
# this displays as \(dq123def\(dq, so the width is 6
6

>_ string length \-\-visible a\enbc
# counts \(dqa\(dq and \(dqbc\(dq as separate lines, so it prints width for each
1
2
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.SH COPYRIGHT
fish-shell developers
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