It is a special strength of ABAP that you can define a great variety of data types and objects that span the spectrum from very elementary data types to very complex and dynamic types. Consequently, the subject of ABAP declarations is quite extensive.
ABAP accepts all data types defined in the SAP dictionary or in Type Pools. Types can also be defined inside the program itself. Object numeric (I for integer, F for floating point), packed decimal (P), character (C or N, where the N type is used for numeric strings that can be used in computation) or hexadecimal (X). Date fields (type D) and time fields (type T) have a "dual" nature; in an input/output context they behave like strings, but in a computational context they are numeric integers. This makes date and time calculations extremely easy. For example:
DATESENT = '20070901'.
VALIDTO = DATESENT + 60.
WRITE: 'Offer is valid until', VALIDTO DD/MM/YYYY.
In this example, a string literal representing September 1, 2007 is assigned to DATESENT. DATESENT is then used in a numeric calculation to produce another data field, VALIDTO. VALIDTO is then output as a string. The optional "DD/MM/YYYY" modifier displays the date in a predefined format, here "31/10/2007". Without the modifier the date would display as "20071031".
Data and Types
All ABAP variables must be explicitly declared in order to be used. The convention is for all declarations to be at the top of the program, or subroutine. The declaration consists of the name, type, length (where applicable), additional modifiers (e.g. the number of implied decimals for a packed decimal field) and optionally an initial value:
* Primitive types:
DATA: COUNTER TYPE I,
VALIDITY TYPE I VALUE 60,
TAXRATE(3) TYPE P DECIMALS 1,
LASTNAME(20) TYPE C.
* Dictionary types:
DATA: ORIGIN TYPE COUNTRY.
* Internal table:
DATA: T_FLIGHTS TYPE TABLE OF FLIGHTINFO,
T_LOOKUP TYPE HASHED TABLE OF FLT_LOOKUP.
* Objects:
DATA: BOOKING TYPE REF TO CL_FLT_BOOKING.
Notice the use of the colon to chain together consecutive DATA statements.
ABAP accepts all data types defined in the SAP dictionary or in Type Pools. Types can also be defined inside the program itself. Object numeric (I for integer, F for floating point), packed decimal (P), character (C or N, where the N type is used for numeric strings that can be used in computation) or hexadecimal (X). Date fields (type D) and time fields (type T) have a "dual" nature; in an input/output context they behave like strings, but in a computational context they are numeric integers. This makes date and time calculations extremely easy. For example:
DATESENT = '20070901'.
VALIDTO = DATESENT + 60.
WRITE: 'Offer is valid until', VALIDTO DD/MM/YYYY.
In this example, a string literal representing September 1, 2007 is assigned to DATESENT. DATESENT is then used in a numeric calculation to produce another data field, VALIDTO. VALIDTO is then output as a string. The optional "DD/MM/YYYY" modifier displays the date in a predefined format, here "31/10/2007". Without the modifier the date would display as "20071031".
Data and Types
All ABAP variables must be explicitly declared in order to be used. The convention is for all declarations to be at the top of the program, or subroutine. The declaration consists of the name, type, length (where applicable), additional modifiers (e.g. the number of implied decimals for a packed decimal field) and optionally an initial value:
* Primitive types:
DATA: COUNTER TYPE I,
VALIDITY TYPE I VALUE 60,
TAXRATE(3) TYPE P DECIMALS 1,
LASTNAME(20) TYPE C.
* Dictionary types:
DATA: ORIGIN TYPE COUNTRY.
* Internal table:
DATA: T_FLIGHTS TYPE TABLE OF FLIGHTINFO,
T_LOOKUP TYPE HASHED TABLE OF FLT_LOOKUP.
* Objects:
DATA: BOOKING TYPE REF TO CL_FLT_BOOKING.
Notice the use of the colon to chain together consecutive DATA statements.
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