A Hollerith constant is a string of printable characters preceded by a character count and the letter H. It is used only in numeric expressions and has the form: nHc[c...] n Is an unsigned, nonzero integer constant stating the number of characters in the string (including tabs and spaces). c Is a printable ASCII character. A Hollerith constant can be a string of 1 to 2000 characters and is stored as a byte string, one character per byte. Hollerith constants have no data type, but assume a numeric data type according to the context in which they are used. They assume data types according to the following rules: o When the constant is used with a binary operator, including the assignment operator, the data type of the constant is the data type of the other operand. o When a specific data type is required, that type is assumed for the constant. o When the constant is used as an actual argument, no data type is assumed. When the length of the constant is less than the length implied by the data type, blanks are appended to the constant on the right. When the length of the constant is greater than the length implied by the data type, the constant is truncated on the right. If any characters other than blank characters are truncated, an error occurs.