GUIDELINE 6.56
Character Set in Source Code
ABAP_BACKGROUND
ABAP source code is edited in the ABAP Editor tool in ABAP Workbench,
itself an ABAP program. ABAP Editor saves and processes the ABAP source
code internally in a data object (an internal table).
This means that the developer edits the source code in the current text
environment, and the associated code page is used.
ABAP_RULE
Use only 7-bit ASCII characters in source code
Use only characters from the 7-bit ASCII character set in ABAP
source code. This avoids problems in systems with different code pages.
ABAP_DETAILS
The 7 bit ASCII character set contains only characters that also
exist in all other code pages. Restricting the characters used in source
code to this character set guarantees that this code can be edited and
executed regardless of the logon language. Source code that contains c
haracters from other character sets could, in the worst case, have
incorrect syntax in a system with a different code page.
ABAP words in ABAP statements use only 7-bit ASCII characters
anyway, which means that this rules to names, literals, and comments.
Note
Unicode programs are the only
possible programs, so the rule above is fulfilled automatically for
names. No appropriate syntax checks are made for non-Unicode programs.
Comments are supposed to be written in
English anyway, which removes the need for any country-specific
special characters.
If a guarantee could be given that a program was written only for
Unicode systems, then the rule above would at least not be needed for
literals and comments. There is a chance, however, that a program could
be used in a non-Unicode system, so this rule should be followed for
reasons of robustness.
Documentation extract taken from SAP system, � Copyright SAP AG. All rights reserved