TABLES
Short Reference
ABAP Syntax TABLES table_wa.
What does it do? This statement is not allowed in classes and declares a
data object table_wa as a table work area whose data type is
adopted from the identically named structured data type table_wa
from the ABAP Dictionary. table_wa must be defined as a
flat structure in ABAP Dictionary.
Either database tables or views can be specified
for table_wa .
Table work areas declared with TABLES are
interface work areas and should
only be declared in the global declaration section of a program for the
following purpose:
The statement TABLES is required for exchanging data between
dynpro fields defined in a program
dynpro by being taken from ABAP Dictionary, and the ABAP program. For
the dynpro event PBO , the content of the
table work area is passed to identically named dynpro fields; for
PAI , the system takes the data from
identically named dynpro fields.
In executable programs , flat
table work areas can be used to copy data that is provided for the event
GET table_wa from an associated
logical database . TABLES is
synonymous with the statement NODES for this
purpose.
ABAP_PGL No table work areas except
for classical dynpros
Latest notes: Table areas declared using NODES behave like common
data declared using the addition COMMON PART
. They are shared by the programs of a
program group . This feature should not
be exploited due to the reasons outlined in
Program Groups in External Procedure Calls .
Table work areas declared using TABLES can be declared in
subroutines and function modules, however this is not recommended. A
table work area declared in a procedure is
not local but belongs to the context of a
master program . The table work area is visible as soon as the master
program is declared and exists for the duration of the master program.
In contrast to normal program-global data, the content of the table work
areas declared in subroutines and function modules is stored temporarily
when these subroutines and function modules are called. Assignments that
were made during runtime of the procedure are preserved until the
procedure is completed. When the procedure is exited, the table work
areas are filled with the contents they contained when the procedure was
called. Table work areas declared in procedures behave like global data
to which the statement LOCAL is applied in the
procedure.
Always use NODES and not TABLES for interface work areas
for logical databases. This makes it clear that they are nodes of
logical databases.
The variant TABLES * is completely
obsolete.
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