when trying to set a gloabal variable to a Varchar field from a SQL table using a hold table with the format ALPHA the resultant output is prefixed with the length of the DB field ie ALL returned from a Varchar(10) field will result in '000010ALL' being returned.

This is sorted out by using the DFIX format on the hold table with any particular delimiter
IE
ON TABLE HOLD AS HLD FORMAT DFIX DELIMITER TAB

This works , but takes hours to figure out if your not sure

Use the SET VARCHAR OFF statement for your RDBMS. It will then not hold the data as a varchar.