Problem with length function

I am about at my wit's end! Hope someone can help. We are running Informix 4.1 (standard engine) on an HP9000-H40 under HPUX 9.00. I have a variable that is declared as char(2000). First it is initialized to null, then I select into it from a table. The value that gets selected is 1036 characters long. When I run make.rds and display the length of this variable after selecting into it, it is 1036. But when I do the same thing after running make and running the executable it produces, the length is 2000. Does anyone know why this is and/or how to get around it? Thanks, -- /************************************************************** * Ryan McFall * * Dept. of Computer Science * * Michigan State University * * mcfallry@cps.msu.edu * * * * My statments do not reflect the opinions of MSU, * * Heck, they probably don't even make sense! * *************************************************************/