Abbreviation: CHAR
CHARACTER is a character-string data type attribute that identifies a variable as a character-string variable. Its format is:
CHARACTER[(n)]
Length n is an extent expression or integer constant, depending on the storage class of the declared name. The length n must be a non-negative integer constant or an expression that evaluates to a non-negative integer. A default length of 1 is supplied if no length is specified. For a discussion of storage classes, see the chapter Storage Classes and the section Character-String Data in the chapter Data Types.