A STRING declaration declares simple variables to be strings. Strings allow storage and manipulation of character strings in a program.

<string declaration>

                             ┌◄───── , ─────┐
──┬───────────────┬─ STRING ─┴─<identifier>─┴──────────────────────────┤
  └─<string type>─┘

<string type>

──┬─ ASCII ──┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  ├─ EBCDIC ─┤
  └─ HEX ────┘

<string identifier>

An identifier that is associated with the STRING data type in a STRING declaration.