If you declare a character array as char vbl[n], TotalView automatically changes the type to $string[n]; that is, a null-terminated, quoted string with a maximum length of n. This means that TotalView displays an array as a quoted string of n characters, terminated by a null character. Similarly, TotalView changes char* declarations to $string* (a pointer to a null-terminated string).

Since most character arrays represent strings, the TotalView $string type can be very convenient. But if this isn’t what you want, you can change the $string type back to a char (or char[n]), to display the variable as you declared it.