# 059. LEN of a character variable may be deferred in Fortran 2003 on
topic: {ref}`character-variables`
```{note}
This tip is a draft[^draft].
[^draft]: From the perspective of FortranTip Browser, "draft" means that
it hasn't been edited for formatting,
hasn't had corresponding Fortran programs added,
the text content hasn't been enhanced, etc.
Draft texts are extracted from the corresponding Tweet using the Twitter API.
```
The LEN of a character variable may be deferred in F2003 on.
character (len=:), allocatable :: s,t(:)
declares a scalar and an array of such variables. The LEN is taken from the RHS of an assignment but not from a READ. Elements of t(:) have same LEN.
---