Storage assignment

The basic rule for character storage assignment is that the length of a string that is assigned to a column or parameter of a function must not be greater than the length attribute of the column or the parameter.

Trailing blanks are included in the length of the string. When the length of the string is greater than the length attribute of the column or the parameter, the following actions occur:

• If all of the trailing characters that must be truncated to make a string fit the target are blanks and the string is a character or graphic string, the string is truncated and assigned without warning.
• Otherwise, the string is not assigned and an error occurs to indicate that at least one of the excess characters is non-blank.

When a string is assigned to a fixed-length column or parameter and the length of the string is less than the length attribute of the target, the string is padded to the right with the necessary number of blanks.