VMS Help DTM, CREATE, VARIABLE, Command Qualifiers, /STRING  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

   Used with the /SYMBOL qualifier, the /STRING qualifier defines
   a symbol type as a text string. Use this qualifier to define an
   unquoted symbol value as a text string. You cannot specify both
   /NUMERIC and /STRING with the same CREATE VARIABLE command. If the
   variable value is enclosed in quotation marks (" "),  the variable
   type is defined as a text string.