As a workaround, it's possible to do this: DIM A[0] A=ARRAY_WITH_LONG_NAME This is actually not slow like you might think, because with arrays and strings, doing this doesn't copy the whole thing. Rather, A and ARRAY_WITH_LONG_NAME actually both point to the same data, so modifying one modifies the other too. (To make an actual separate copy, you'd do COPY A,ARRAY_WITH_LONG_NAME instead.)