What does the LEN function return?

The LEN function is specifically designed to return the length of a given text string in terms of the number of characters it contains. This includes all letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation marks. For example, if the function is applied to the text "Hello, World!", it would return 13 because there are 13 characters present in that string, including the space and punctuation.

Other options focus on different aspects of text and data analysis. The function does not count the number of words; that would require a different approach, often involving combinations of other text functions to identify spaces and delimiters between words. Similarly, while there are functions that can evaluate lengths across ranges or datasets, the LEN function operates only on individual text strings without providing a count of the longest string or total strings within a dataset. Thus, the LEN function's primary function is to measure character count, making the first choice the accurate depiction of its purpose.