What it returns is the defined length of the particular column.
5>
6> CREATE TABLE publishers(
7> pub_id char(4) NOT NULL,
8> pub_name varchar(40) NULL,
9> city varchar(20) NULL,
10> state char(2) NULL,
11> country varchar(30) NULL DEFAULT('USA')
12> )
13> GO
1>
2>
3> insert publishers values('1', 'Publisher A', 'Vancouver', 'MA', 'USA')
4> insert publishers values('2', 'Publisher B', 'Washington', 'DC', 'USA')
5> insert publishers values('3', 'Publisher C', 'Berkeley', 'CA', 'USA')
6> insert publishers values('4', 'Publisher D', 'New York', 'NY', 'USA')
7> insert publishers values('5', 'Publisher E', 'Chicago', 'IL', 'USA')
8> insert publishers values('6', 'Publisher F', 'Dallas', 'TX', 'USA')
9> insert publishers values('7', 'Publisher G', 'Vancouver', 'BC', 'Canada')
10> insert publishers values('8', 'Publisher H', 'Paris', NULL, 'France')
11> GO
(1 rows affected)
(1 rows affected)
(1 rows affected)
(1 rows affected)
(1 rows affected)
(1 rows affected)
(1 rows affected)
(1 rows affected)
1> SELECT COL_LENGTH('publishers', 'pub_id')
2> GO
------
4
(1 rows affected)
1>
2> drop table publishers;
3> GO
1>