# utf8-byte-length [](http://travis-ci.org/parshap/utf8-byte-length) Get the utf8 byte length of a string, taking into account multi-byte characters and surrogate pairs. By default, this module defers to `Buffer.byteLength`. A browser implementation is also provided that doesn't use `Buffer.byteLength` minimize build size. ## Example ```js var getLength = require("utf8-byte-length") console.log(truncate("a☃", 2)) // a = 1 byte, ☃ = 3 bytes // -> 4 ``` ## API ### `var getLength = require("utf8-byte-length")` *When using browserify or webpack*, this automatically resolves to an implementation that does not use `Buffer.byteLength`. ### `getLength(string)` Returns the byte length of `string`. Throws an error if `string` is not a string.