[StringType] STRING[n]

A character string of n bytes, space padded (not null-terminated). If n is omitted, the string is variable length to the size needed to contain the result of the cast or passed parameter. You may use set indexing into any string to parse out a substring.

The optional StringType may specify ASCII or EBCDIC. If the StringType is missing, the data is in ASCII format. Defining an EBCDIC STRING Attribute as a string constant value implies an ASCII to EBCDIC conversion.

The upper size limit for any STRING value is 4GB.

Fields can optionally have a LENGTHSIZE attribute to specify the number of bytes (1, 2, or 4) used to store a variable-length field's length prefix. The default is 4 bytes. This is useful for reducing memory usage for small variable-length strings. If a longer string is assigned, it will be truncated.

Example:

STRING1 MyString := IF(SomeAttribute > 10,'1','0');
        // declares MyString a 1-byte ASCII string

EBCDIC STRING3 MyString1 := 'ABC';
        //implicit ASCII to EBCDIC conversion

testRecord := RECORD
    STRING name;
    STRING name1{LENGTHSIZE(1)};
    STRING name2{LENGTHSIZE(2)};
    STRING name4{LENGTHSIZE(4)};
    UNSIGNED1 sentinel;
END;

OUTPUT(MyString);
OUTPUT(MyString1); 

See Also: LENGTH, TRIM, Set Ordering and Indexing, Hexadecimal String