By default, SAS creates each variable with a length of 8 bytes - longer character values are then truncated. The length statement (in a data step?) specifies a different length.
Set length of character variable
data _null_;
length w1 $ 1;
length w2 $ 2;
length w3 $ 3;
w1="foo";
w2="bar";
w3="baz";
put w1=;
put w2=;
put w3=;
run;
/*
w1=f
w2=ba
w3=baz
*/