Ummm, len()? or...

Well, I feel like a total newb today! :-)

How on Blitz Earth do I get the length of either a int variable and ditto for a
string variable?

Here's what I was doing:

  Local vLineNow  = TextAreaCursor(vTextEdit,TEXTAREA_LINES) + 1
  Local vLineAll  = TextAreaLen(vTextEdit,TEXTAREA_LINES) + 1
  Local vRawLine  = TextAreaCursor(vTextEdit,TEXTAREA_LINES)
  Local vCharNow  = TextAreaCursor(vTextEdit,TEXTAREA_CHARS) - TextAreaChar(vTextEdit,vRawLine)
  Local vLinePad  = Len(vLineAll)
  Local vPadding$ = ""
  Local vCurrPad  = Len vCharNow + Len vPadding$
  If vCurrPad <> vLinePad
    Repeat
      vPadding$ = vPadding$ + "."
      vCurrPad  = Len vCharNow + Len vPadding$
    Until vCurrPad = vLinePad
  EndIf
  SetStatusText(vWindow,"Ln:  " + vPadding$ + vLineNow + "    Col:  " + vCharNow + "    " + vLinePad + "|" + vCurrPad)

But the len isn't working. Likely it's something I'm doing wrong, but after
hitting the docs for about an hour, haven't found my mistake or a solution.

Can anybody slap me in the face with an answer to this?

Thanks,
-Garrett