The A and AHEX formats are the only ones that may be assigned to string variables. Neither format allows any decimal places.
In A format, the entire field is treated as a string value. The field width may range from 1 to 32,767, the maximum string width. The default output format is the same as the input format.
In AHEX format, the field is composed of characters in a string encoded as hex digit pairs. On output, hex digits are output in uppercase; on input, uppercase and lowercase are both accepted. The default output format is A format with half the input width.