ARTICLE
Field Symbols
Field symbols are placeholders or symbolic names for existing data
objects (or parts of existing data objects), declared by the statement
FIELD-SYMBOLS or by the declaration
operator FIELD-SYMBOL . A memory
area is assigned to a field symbol at program runtime. A field symbol
does not reserve any physical space for a field, but is a type of
dynamic label for a memory area hosting a particular data object (or
part of the object). A field symbol can be used instead of data objects
at operand positions of statements. When a statement of this type is
executed, a memory area must be assigned to the field symbol by the
statement ASSIGN or the addition ASSIGNING
when processing internal tables
.
Field symbols can point to almost any data object. A field symbol is the
equivalent of a data reference
variable dereferenced using - * . Unlike data reference
variables, value semantics are used
to access a field symbol Accessing a field symbol is like accessing the
named data object (or part of the object). For data reference variables,
however, reference semantics
apply.
Field symbols are implemented both for generic work with data objects
and for explicit casting of data objects
(only possible using field symbols).
ABAP_PGL Use field symbols and
data references in appropriate ways
Note
Field symbols to which data objects or parts of data objects are
assigned in the heap are
memory-preserving, like heap
references .
Documentation extract taken from SAP system, � Copyright SAP AG. All rights reserved