Finding field with longest length in a column

Question

How do I find the field with the longest length of a specific column in a MySQL table?

Answer 1

MySQL has a lot of string functions you can use:

SELECT LENGTH(col) as my_len FROM my_table ORDER BY my_len DESC LIMIT 1

More funky version (it works):

SELECT MAX(LENGTH(col)) FROM my_table

Answer 2

You can use the mysql command LENGTH()

<?php 
$q = mysql_query("SELECT LENGTH(yourfield) AS fieldlength FROM yourtable ORDER BY fieldlength DESC LIMIT 1"); 
echo $longestfield = mysql_result($q,0); 
?>