| --- |
| page_title: length - Functions - Configuration Language |
| description: The length function determines the length of a collection or string. |
| --- |
| |
| # `length` Function |
| |
| `length` determines the length of a given list, map, or string. |
| |
| If given a list or map, the result is the number of elements in that collection. |
| If given a string, the result is the number of characters in the string. |
| |
| ## Examples |
| |
| ``` |
| > length([]) |
| 0 |
| > length(["a", "b"]) |
| 2 |
| > length({"a" = "b"}) |
| 1 |
| > length("hello") |
| 5 |
| ``` |
| |
| When given a string, the result is the number of characters, rather than the |
| number of bytes or Unicode sequences that form them: |
| |
| ``` |
| > length("👾🕹️") |
| 2 |
| ``` |
| |
| A "character" is a _grapheme cluster_, as defined by |
| [Unicode Standard Annex #29](http://unicode.org/reports/tr29/). Note that |
| remote APIs may have a different definition of "character" for the purpose of |
| length limits on string arguments; a Terraform provider is responsible for |
| translating Terraform's string representation into that used by its respective |
| remote system and applying any additional validation rules to it. |
