string.len()

Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's Lua journey — lesson 44 of 90.

The string.len() function is your first tool for working with text data in more sophisticated ways.

The string.len() function returns the number of characters in a string. This includes letters, numbers, spaces, and any special characters. Here's the basic syntax:

string.len(your_string)

Here's a simple example:

local username = "player123"
local length = string.len(username)
print(length)  -- outputs: 9

The string "player123" contains 9 characters, so string.len() returns 9.

Challenge

Easy

Create a username validation system that checks if a username meets the minimum length requirement. Declare a variable called username and assign it the value "player123". Use the string.len() function to find the length of the username, then store this length in a variable called usernameLength. Finally, print the length value.

Cheat sheet

The string.len() function returns the number of characters in a string, including letters, numbers, spaces, and special characters:

string.len(your_string)

Example:

local username = "player123"
local length = string.len(username)
print(length)  -- outputs: 9

Try it yourself

-- Declare the username variable
local username = "player123"

-- TODO: Write your code here to find the length and store it in usernameLength

-- Print the length
print(usernameLength)