Retrieve the maximum length of a VARCHAR column in SQL Server

Use the built-in functions for length and max on the description column:

SELECT MAX(LEN(DESC)) FROM table_name;

Note that if your table is very large, there can be performance issues.

Watch out!! If there's spaces they will not be considered by the LEN method in T-SQL. Don't let this trick you and use

select max(datalength(Desc)) from table_name

For Oracle, it is also LENGTH instead of LEN

SELECT MAX(LENGTH(Desc)) FROM table_name

Also, DESC is a reserved word. Although many reserved words will still work for column names in many circumstances it is bad practice to do so, and can cause issues in some circumstances. They are reserved for a reason.

If the word Desc was just being used as an example, it should be noted that not everyone will realize that, but many will realize that it is a reserved word for Descending. Personally, I started off by using this, and then trying to figure out where the column name went because all I had were reserved words. It didn't take long to figure it out, but keep that in mind when deciding on what to substitute for your actual column name.

For MySQL, it's LENGTH, not LEN:

SELECT MAX(LENGTH(Desc)) FROM table_name