String_Types

 You can use schema and data types to  store  and  to  manipulate
 character  strings.   These  types  have  the following order of
 complexity:

 1.  CHAR type

 2.  PACKED ARRAY OF CHAR user-defined types

 3.  VARYING OF CHAR user-defined types

 4.  STRING predefined schema

 Objects of the CHAR data  type  are  character  strings  with  a
 length  of  1  and  are  lowest in the order of character string
 complexity.  You can assign CHAR data to variables of the  other
 string types.

 The PACKED ARRAY OF CHAR types allow you to specify fixed-length
 character  strings.   The VARYING OF CHAR types are a VSI Pascal
 extension that allows you to  specify  varying-length  character
 strings  with  a  constant  maximum  length.   The  STRING types
 provide  a  standard  way  for  you  to  specify   storage   for
 varying-length  character strings with a maximum length that can
 be specified at run time.

 To provide values for variables of these types, you should use a
 character-string  constant (or an expression that evaluates to a
 character string) instead of an array constructor.  Using  array
 constructors  with STRING and VARYING OF CHAR types generates an
 error; to use array  constructors  with  PACKED  ARRAY  OF  CHAR
 types,  you  must  specify component values for every element in
 the array (otherwise, you generate an error).

 Example:

    VAR      
       String1 : VARYING[10] OF CHAR VALUE 'abc';     

Additional information available:

String          PACKED          Varying_of_char