This is used for a character string that always has the same length.

The (length) represents an integer for the maximum length of this column definition and must be 1 or greater.

Alphanumeric data can be stored in this definition.

If the length of the data entered into this column is shorter than the column definition, then the data is padded with spaces to the length specified by (length). For example, if the length is set to 20 characters and only 8 characters are entered, then 12 spaces are added to the end. If the data is too long, then it will be truncated.

CHAR is the same as CHARACTER. We use CHAR in this course.

Example:    COL1 CHAR(30)

COL1 is 30 characters in length.