When comparing CHAR strings against VARCHAR2 strings, use the rtrim function to eliminate trailing spaces : VARCHAR2 « PL SQL Data Types « Oracle PL/SQL Tutorial

1. Oracle PL/SQL Tutorial
2. PL SQL Data Types
3. VARCHAR2

SQL>
SQL>
SQL> SET SERVEROUTPUT ON --for DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE.
SQL> SET ECHO ON
SQL> DECLARE
  2    employee_name_c CHAR(32);
  3    employee_name_v VARCHAR2(32);
  4  BEGIN
  5    --Assign the same value to each string.
  6    employee_name_c := 'James Gennick';
  7    employee_name_v := 'James Gennick';
  8
  9    --Test the strings for equality.
 10
 11    IF rtrim(employee_name_c) = employee_name_v THEN
 12       DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('The names are the same');
 13     ELSE
 14       DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('The names are NOT the same');
 15     END IF;
 16  END;
 17  /
The names are the same

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL>