# string-length > Get the real length of a string - by correctly counting astral symbols and ignoring [ansi escape codes](https://github.com/sindresorhus/strip-ansi) `String#length` erroneously counts [astral symbols](https://web.archive.org/web/20150721114550/http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/unicode_astral.html) as two characters. ## Install ``` $ npm install string-length ``` ## Usage ```js const stringLength = require('string-length'); '🐴'.length; //=> 2 stringLength('🐴'); //=> 1 stringLength('\u001B[1municorn\u001B[22m'); //=> 7 ``` ## Related - [string-length-cli](https://github.com/LitoMore/string-length-cli) - CLI for this module - [string-width](https://github.com/sindresorhus/string-width) - Get visual width of a string ---