(1) A record having a length independent of the length of other records with which it is logically or physically associated. See also fixed-length record.
(2) In distributed data management (DDM) and Distributed FileManager (DFM), a record whose length can be changed after it has been written to a file. Variable-length records are normally used in reference to count-key-data (CKD) and extended count key data (ECKD) formats. See also fixed-length record.