Aspects of the disclosure provide a method and an apparatus including processing circuitry for video decoding. The processing circuitry is configured to decode coding information for a current block. The coding information can indicate that the current block is coded in a string copy mode. The processing circuitry is configured to determine a string vector (SV) and a string length of a current string in the current block based on the coding information. The string length can be N3 times L where N3 and L are positive integers, and L is larger than 1. The processing circuitry is configured to reconstruct the current string based on the SV and the string length of the current string. In an example, the current block is a luma block and L is 4.