ARTICLE
Boxed Component s
Boxed component s are structures that are not saved in the
higher-level context itself. Instead, an internal reference that points
to the actual structure is stored in place of the structure. A
boxed
component is always a deep component of its
context.
It is currently to possible to declare substructures of data types and
structured attributes of classes as
static boxes
that support initial value
sharing .
Notes
Boxed component s are a halfway house between
static and
dynamic data objects . Their
memory requirement has not already been defined when the program is
started in internal mode, but they can be treated like static data
objects with a fixed length.
A nested structure that contains a boxed component as a component
is always a deep stucture .
Structures of ABAP Dictionary can also contain boxed component s.
ABAP Dictionary database tables cannot contain any boxed component
s as their structures have to be flat.
In the classes and objects of the RTTS ,
boxed component s are handled as follows:
The class CL_ABAP_TYPEDESCR
contains the constant TYPEKIND_BREF for static boxes. The value
of these constants is listed as the type of a static box in the
component table COMPONENTS of class
CL_ABAP_STRUCTDESCR or attribute table ATTRIBUTES of
classes CL_ABAP_CLASSDESCR or
CL_ABAP_INTFDESCR .
In the return code of the method GET_COMPONENTS of class
CL_ABAP_STRUCTDESCR or
GET_ATTRIBUTE_TYPE of classes
CL_ABAP_CLASSDESCR or
CL_ABAP_INTFDESCR , boxed component s such as reference
variables are listed as type description objects of class
CL_ABAP_REFDESCR . The method
GET_REFERENCED_TYPE of this class gets a type description object for
the substructure. A type description object of the class
CL_ABAP_REFDESCR , which describes a boxed component , cannot be
used in the statements CREATE DATA or
ASSIGN CASTING .
Documentation extract taken from SAP system, � Copyright SAP AG. All rights reserved