freeCodeCamp/guide/english/python/len-function/index.md

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---
title: Python Len Function
---
`len()` is a built-in function in Python 3\. This method returns the length (the number of items) of an object. It takes one argument `x`.
## Arguments
It takes one argument, `x`. This argument may be a sequence (such as a string, bytes, tuple, list, or range) or a collection (such as a dictionary, set, or frozen set).
## Return Value
This function returns the number of elements in the argument which is passed to the `len()` function.
## Code Sample
```py
>>> list1 = [123, 'xyz', 'zara'] # list
>>> print(len(list1)) # prints 3 as there are 3 elements in the list1
3
```
```py
>>> str1 = 'basketball' # string
>>> print(len(str1)) # prints 10 as the str1 is made of 10 characters
10
```
```py
>>> tuple1 = (2, 3, 4, 5) # tuple
>>> print(len(tuple1)) # prints 4 as there are 4 elements in the tuple1
4
```
```py
>>> dict1 = {'name': 'John', 'age': 4, 'score': 45} # dictionary
>>> print(len(dict1)) # prints 3 as there are 3 key and value pairs in the dict1
3
```
```py
>>> d2=[[1,2,3],[3,4,5],[5,6,7,2]] # 2 dimensional list or a list of lists
>>> print(len(d2)) #prints 3 because there are 3 different lists in the outer list.
3
```
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