MySQL in a Nutshell

Name

UNCOMPRESSED_LENGTH( )

Synopsis

UNCOMPRESSED_LENGTH(string)

This function returns the number of characters contained in the given string after decompression. You can compress strings using the COMPRESS( ) function. This function is available as of Version 4.1 of MySQL.

SELECT UNCOMPRESSED_LENGTH(essay)
FROM applications
WHERE applicant_id = '1748';