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.