This is MySQL question instead SQLyog.
Length()function Returns the length of the string str, measured in bytes. A multi-byte character counts as multiple bytes. This means that for a string containing five two-byte characters, LENGTH() returns 10, whereas CHAR_LENGTH() returns 5.
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/string-functions.html#function_length
In your case :
select length('123ä');
Output:
5
but for
select CHAR_LENGTH('123ä');
Output:
4
Because “ä” is a multibyte character.