You could use chunks of a fixed size e,g

VB Code:
  1. Type Jelly
  2.     Flavour as string * 10
  3.     Colour as string * 10
  4.     State as long
  5.     Spare as string * 100
  6. end type
  7.  
  8. Type JellyBean
  9.     Flavour as string * 10
  10.    Colour as string * 10
  11.    Spare as string * 104 '  A Long is 4 bytes so to make equel length we add it to the spare string
  12. end type