ARTICLE
Strings
Strings are elementary data
objects of variable length. Strings can be either
text strings or
byte strings . Like
internal tables , strings belong to the
dynamic data objects .
The corresponding predefined ABAP types are string and
xstring . These are the dynamic equivalent of the data types c
and x , which define text or byte fields of fixed length. Text
strings and text fields contain
character strings . Their common generic type is csequence .
Byte strings and byte fields contain byte
strings . Their common generic type is xsequence .
Unlike a text field or byte field, the length of a string is not
statically determined, but rather is variable and adapts to the current
content of the data object at runtime. Internally, this uses dynamic
memory management (see Storage Management
for Deep Data Objects ). The maximum size of a string is determined
by the profile parameter
ztta/max_memreq_MB (see
Maximum Size of Dynamic Data Objects ).
The initial value of a string is the empty string with length 0.
In contrast to text fields, trailing blanks are always taken into
account in text strings. There is a special
text string literal for text
strings. As with byte fields, there is no special
literal for byte strings in the current
release.
Strings belong to the deep data types. A
structure that contains a string is a
deep structure and cannot be used as a character-like field in the
same way as a flat structure .
Strings, like internal tables, can be stored in
data clusters . Strings can also be saved
in database tables. However there are certain
Restrictions .
Documentation extract taken from SAP system, � Copyright SAP AG. All rights reserved