ARTICLE
Use of Predefined Data Types from ABAP Dictionary
The following table shows the data types from ABAP Dictionary which are
built from its predefined types and can be addressed in an ABAP program.
The elementary components of these data types are converted into
predefined ABAP data types in
accordance with the last column of the
table of predefined dictionary types
; the number of digits m is converted into lengths.
Data Types in ABAP Dictionary Data Types in ABAP
Data ElementElementary data type, reference type
Structure, database table, viewStructured data type
Table type Table type
As well as defining data types, the predefined types from ABAP
Dictionary must be respected in Open SQL
statements and when working with screens
:
Open SQL statements work with database tables which are defined
in ABAP Dictionary and whose columns have external data types.
Screen fields are declared in
Screen Painter , also with reference to
external data types.
Notes
When using data types from ABAP Dictionary which are based on the
predefined types RAWSTRING , STRING , and SSTRING ,
you have to consider in ABAP programs that the maximum lengths defined
in ABAP Dictionary have no effect on the assigned ABAP types string
and xstring . As a result, writing a string that is too long
to a database can raise an exception. If required, you therefore have
to apply a length restriction for strings in ABAP programs, for which
the predefined function dbmaxlen can
be used.
When using the predefined type CHAR for database fields, remember
that its maximum length is limited to 1333. Data elements of the type
CHAR whose length is greater than 1333 cannot be used as types of
database fields.
When using the predefined types RAWSTRING , STRING , and
SSTRING for database fields, the maximum lengths can be
interpreted as notes to the database system. While
LOB s of types RAWSTRING and STRING are also
usually handled as deep data objects in the
database, database fields of type SSTRING are usually stored
flat . The actual handling, however, depends on
the individual database system and is not important for ABAP programs.
For the definition of a data type that is based on the predefined types
CURR , DEC , DF34_DEC , DF16_DEC and QUAN
, an odd number of digits must be used. These values are stored in
BCD format, for which in ABAP (data type
p ), only an odd number of digits is possible, since a half byte
is used for the sign. If you specify an even number of digits, the as
signed ABAP type has the next biggest odd number of digits and as a
result, may lead to an overflow and an exception when writing to the
database.
A component of structures or database tables that has the data type
LANG , can be identified as text language. Text language is used to
convert character-like components of the structure when importing data
from data clusters and for binary
RFC protocols for passing TABLES
parameters between MDMP systems
and Unicode systems .
For information on how to use decimal floating point numbers, see
Decimal Floating Point Numbers .
For information on how to use currency fields of type CURR , see
Currency Fields .
For information on how to use quantity fields of type QUAN , see
Quantity Fields .
Documentation extract taken from SAP system, � Copyright SAP AG. All rights reserved