diff --git a/ndb/tools/ndb_size.pl b/ndb/tools/ndb_size.pl
index ece0901e0b238c25cd745b367b13e9f2a7fe949c..e0085c619f07f63a1c3810735b27f421da0021af 100644
--- a/ndb/tools/ndb_size.pl
+++ b/ndb/tools/ndb_size.pl
@@ -146,9 +146,9 @@ foreach(@{$tables})
 	elsif($type =~ /varchar/ || $type =~ /varbinary/)
 	{
 	    my $fixed= 1+$size;
-	    my @dynamic=$dbh->selectrow_array("select avg(length("
-					      .$dbh->quote($name)
-					      .")) from `".$table.'`');
+	    my @dynamic=$dbh->selectrow_array("select avg(length(`"
+					      .$name.
+					      ."`)) from `".$table.'`');
 	    $dynamic[0]=0 if !$dynamic[0];
 	    @realsize= ($fixed,$fixed,ceil($dynamic[0]));
 	}