VARYING{(2 | 4)}

The VARYING keyword indicates that a character, graphic, or UCS-2 field, defined on the definition specifications, should have a variable-length format. If this keyword is not specified for character, graphic, or UCS-2 fields, they are defined as fixed length.

The parameter of the VARYING keyword indicates the number of bytes used to store the current length of the variable-length item. See Size of the Length-Prefix for a Varying Length Item.

Note: The VARYING keyword is not used in a free-form definition. Instead, the VARCHAR, VARGRAPH, or VARUCS2 keyword is used to specify the data type of the item. keyword.

For more information, see Variable-Length Character, Graphic and UCS-2 Formats.