Character semantics are introduced with Oracle 9i, which allows variables to be sized in characters or bytes, for example:
myVar VARCHAR2(10 CHAR);
myFixedVar CHAR(10 BYTE);
Oracle 8i and Forms 6i use byte semantics, but Oracle Forms supports byte or character sizing at the PL/SQL level, and with a new property, Data Length Semantics.
With Oracle Forms, you can take advantage of the Oracle Database Server character semantics in CHAR and VARCHAR2 database columns, as well as PL/SQL variables.
For data items that correspond to CHAR or VARCHAR2 database columns whose length declaration is specified as CHAR, the data item enforces the length programmatically, in characters, to provide more timely feedback than an error on a database insert or update.
Non-database character items can also enforce a character limit. PL/SQL program units in a Form can declare CHAR or VARCHAR2 variables with the length in either characters or bytes.