DATA (data)

The DATA tag defines the number of characters that follow the tag for which no tag processing is to be performed. This tag is generally only used if the text to be written contains characters that might otherwise be misinterpreted as formatting tags.
Figure 1. Syntax

1 <DATA length>
length
The number of characters in the input stream immediately following the DATA tag that should be treated as textual data regardless of any possible tag contents.

Description

Text that might contain valid tags can be protected from causing formatting problems by using the DATA tag to specify the number of characters that should be treated as text only.

Note: The use of tag delimiters ('<' or '>') in text that is not preceded by a DATA tag is permitted as long as no valid tag syntax occurs. Invalid and incomplete tags are returned to the input stream as textual data.