SAP CONSTRUCTOR EXPRESSION REF documentation, setup help and example usage

ARTICLE

REF - Reference Operator

Syntax
... REF type( dobj | table_exp ) ...


ABAP_ALTERNATIVES:
1 ... REF type( dobj )
2 ... REF type( table_exp )


Effect
A constru tor expression with the reference operator REF creates either a data reference variable that points to the argument dobj or controls a table expression table_exp .
Existing data objects and table expressions can be specified as an argument, but no further expressions or function calls.

ABAP_ALTERNATIVE_1 ... REF type( dobj )


Effect
If a data object dobj is specified as an argument, the operator REF functions like the statement GET REFERENCE and creates a
data reference variable as a result. This variable points to the specified data object dobj . type determines the static type of the result. The following can be specified for type :

A non-generic data type dtype that follows the rules of up casts in data references .

The generic data type data .

The # character for a data type, determined in accordance with the following hierarchy:

If the data type required in an operand position is unique and fully recognized, the operand type is used.

If the operand type cannot be derived from the context, the data type of

dobj is used.

If the data type of dobj cannot be recognized statically, the generic type data is used.

The parentheses must contain precisely one unnamed argument dobj . If offsets/lengths ( +off(len) ) are specified, the data type dobj here cannot be string or xstring .

Notes

The conversion operator REF is suitable for avoiding declarations of helper variables only needed, for example, to specify data reference variables as actual parameters.

No empty parentheses can be specified after REF .

Example
Fills an internal table with the value operator VALUE , where the component dref is given a value using REF . This is an excerpt from the example for the class
CL_ABAP_BROWSER . Other uses can be found in
examples of ADBC , where parameter bindings are used.
TYPES pict_line(1022) TYPE x.

DATA pict TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF pict_line WITH EMPTY KEY.
DATA ext_data TYPE cl_abap_browser=>load_tab.

ext_data = VALUE #( ( name = 'PICT.GIF'
type = 'image'
dref = REF #( pict ) ) ).

ABAP_ALTERNATIVE_2 ... REF type( tab_exp )


Effect
If a table expression table_exp is specified as an argument, the operator REF controls the category of its result, as described in the related section .