+The contents of a set of missing values is subject to some
+restrictions. Regardless of width, a set of missing values is allowed
+to be empty. A set of numeric missing values may contain up to three
+discrete numeric values, or a range of numeric values (which includes
+both ends of the range), or a range plus one discrete numeric value.
+A set of string missing values may contain up to three discrete string
+values (with the same width as the set), but ranges are not supported.
+
+In addition, values in string missing values wider than
+@code{MV_MAX_STRING} bytes may contain non-space characters only in
+their first @code{MV_MAX_STRING} bytes; all the bytes after the first
+@code{MV_MAX_STRING} must be spaces. @xref{mv_is_acceptable}, for a
+function that tests a value against these constraints.
+
+@deftypefn Macro int MV_MAX_STRING
+Number of bytes in a string missing value that are not required to be
+spaces. The current value is 8, a value which is fixed by the system
+file format. In PSPP we could easily eliminate this restriction, but
+doing so would also require us to extend the system file format in an
+incompatible way, which we consider a bad tradeoff.
+@end deftypefn
+