How to count the string length

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1

Please can anyone tell me, how to count the string length

2

One way is to assign it to a variable. And then do ${#variable}. The other would be to traverse through the string and keep a count.

3

Another is using "wc" though I think it also couts "return char"...
For instance, in AIX with bash:
echo helo | wc -m
returns 5
echo -e "helo\c" | wc -m
returns 4