Sometimes you might need to know the type of a variable, for example when someone enters a string in a field and the ACL need to check for that type of string before continuing processing.
To find out the current length of a variable, you can use the built-in function &TYPE_OF(...):
Example:
VDEFINE VAR,8,TYPE=CHAR
SET VAR,'HELLO'
SET T,&SIZE_OF(VAR) <-- without '&'!!
Variable &T will contain 'CHAR ALL', the length of the value currently kept in variable &VAR.
Possible values are:
ARRAY Indicates that this is an array variable
BIN Indicates that this is a binary variable.
CHAR Indicates that this is a character variable.
UPCHAR Indicates that this is an uppercase character variable.
HEX Indicates that this is a hexadecimal variable.
NOTRUNC Indicates that the variable will not be stripped of trailing blanks when substitution takes place.
NUM Indicates that this is a numeric variable.
UNDEFINED Indicates that this variable is not defined.
This value can be attached to the ones above:
ACL Indicates that the variable was defined in ACL/E