FIX-LENGTH Directive
This directive forces an alphanumeric COBOL field to be defined as CHAR on the database.
>>EFD FIX-LENGTH
or
$EFD FIX-LENGTH
or
*(( EFD FIX-LENGTH ))
or
*>(( EFD FIX-LENGTH ))
Example
>>EFD FIX-LENGTH
 03 CUS-NAME PIC X(32).