In the following example, the three blanks are necessary to allow for the possibility of a minus sign, a decimal or binary point, and provision for a single leading zero before the point:
dcl A char(4),
B char(7);
A='0'; /*A has value '0bbb'*/
A=0; /*A has value 'bbb0'*/
B=1234567; /*B has value 'bbb1234'*/