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The form of the RECORD LENGTH command is:

RECORD LENGTH n,

The command is used for fixed layout records where n is the longest allowable record length.

Data locations used in the script must be less than or equal to n.

The data can be character (ASC or UNI) or binary.

The RECORD LENGTH command may appear only once, in the Data Stage, after START DATA and before the first executable command. It may not appear if a CARD NUMBERS command is present. It is non-executable and serves to tell CL the number of data locations to reserve in characters (UNI), or bytes (ASC), or columns (Binary)

If the data is binary, the command BINARYDATA must appear in the control stage before naming the data file.

Unless BINARYDATA is used, this command will treat cols as fields, so $123 will be treated as $123-123.  Also, the MAKE command cannot be used except to make a col blank and the CT function cannot count cols or fields.

See also CARD CHARACTERS (BINARY).

You cannot use CARD CHARACTERS and RECORD LENGTH commands in the same script.