ARTICLE
Naming Conventions and Namespaces
Naming Conventions
The following conventions apply for the names of all definable objects
within ABAP programs, such as data types, data objects, classes, macros,
or procedures :
A name can be up to 30 characters in length.
Permitted are letters from "A" to "Z", numbers from "0" to "9", and
underscores ( _ ). Outside of ABAP objects and non-
Unicode programs , the name can start
with other characters. If, however, characters are used that are not
available in all code pages supported by
SAP, it might not be possible to run certain programs when using a
different code page to the one in which they were created.
The name must start with a letter or an underscore ( _ ). Only
outside of ABAP objects can the name also start with a different
character.
The name can have a namespace prefix. A namespace prefix consists of at
least three characters that are delimited by two backslashes (/.../
). The entire length of prefix and name cannot exceed 30 characters.
For data types and data objects, the names of predefined ABAP types or
predefined data objects cannot be used.
Using IDs that are reserved for ABAP words and so
on for user-defined definitions is not actually forbidden, but it is
strongly advised against.
Field symbols are special in that their names have to be enclosed in
parentheses ( ).
ABAP_PGL Program-Internal Names
Notes
All types possible in ABAP are in a namespace. Data types and object
types do not have separate namespaces. A global class, for example,
cannot be created with a name that is already being used for a data type
in ABAP Dictionary.
The naming conventions presented here must be followed. They are not
checked in full by the syntax check, but they must not be broken more
than absolutely necessary. The program
DEMO_CHARACTERS_IN_ABAP_NAMES demonstrates how these checks run in
the current system.
Namespaces
Outside of class declarations, different objects have separate
namespaces, so it is possible that data types, data objects or proced
ures can have the same name. Classes and interfaces thus lie within the
same namespace as data types. The namespace is valid for the respective
context. Within a context, the names of the same objects must be unique.
For example, there can only be one subprogram of a name in an ABAP
program and only one function module of a name in the entire
AS ABAP .
Within a class declaration, the name of every class component (data
type, attribute, method, event, or alias name) must be unique.
Documentation extract taken from SAP system, � Copyright SAP AG. All rights reserved