Removing trailing spaces from a character variable defined in a stored procedure

Hi, Is there a way to remove trailing spaces from a *character* variable (not varchar) defined in a stored procedure. The TRIM() function does not seem to do the trick. In fact, the definition of a trim function on a fixed length character states that it would pad it with spaces. The reason we cannot use *varchar* datatype is due to the fact that we concatenate a lot (last count 98) variables into one variable and the stored procedure does not seem to like concatenating a lot of *varchar*. It returns with an error 881 on the LET statement. Hardware : Sun Ultra 4000 Software : Solaris 2.5.1, Informix Dynamic Server 7.23.UC5 Here is an example(not complete) which gives an 881 ------------------------------------------------------ create procedure p1() -- define var1 thru var98 define var1 varchar(11) ; define var2 varchar(20) ; .... define var98 varchar(11) ; define deleted_row char(1000) ; let var1="value1 " || "|"; let var2="value2 " || "|"; .... let var98="value98 " || "|" let deleted_row = var1 || var2 || var3 || ... || var98 (this statement gives a 881 error) insert into tab1 values (0,deleted_row); end procedure; To get around the 881 error, we have to use char datatype for var1 thru var98. But char datatype has the problem of trailing spaces. Does the "clipped" work with a LET statement in a stored procedure ? If so, could you please show me the syntax. All help appreciated -- Rajiv Jhaveri (rajivp@qsun.ho.att.com)