Data Types in the ABAP Dictionary

This SAP article will guide you all about “Data Types in the ABAP Dictionary”.

ABAP Dictionary :- ABAP Dictionary used to define user defined global data types in SAP, where the user defined data types are type definitions and can be used in ABAP program with TYPE clause.

Types of Data types: – The following are different types of data types

1. Data elements


2. Structure


3. Table types

1. Data elements

Data elements are the fields in ABAP Dictionary and used to identify the types of columns in database.

Data elements types: - The following are the types of data elements

1. Elementary type


2. Reference type

Element type: - It has semantic attributes such as text, value tables, length, number of decimal places. This data types can be specify by using the following methods-

Assigning predefined ABAP Data type: - It specifies the data elements can be assigned with the predefined dictionary types to a element type i.e CHAR (character) and NUMC (Numeric text) and can assign length to a selected data type.

Assigning a Domain: – When domain is created it is mandatory to specify a dictionary data type and character, You can use on domain with any number of data elements.

2. Structure data types: – Structure data type is a grouping of data types in one name. When structure is created in ABAP, each component should have a name and type of data.

Reference Type: - Reference types are predefined in SAP and there are defined by the ABAP programmer.

Predefined data types : - The following are predefined data types in SAP.

Data Type	Value	Default field length
C (Character)	“…”	1
D (Date)	8	“00000000″
F (Float)	8	0
I (Integer)	4	0
N (Numeric)	1	“0…0″
P (Packed)	8	0
T (Time)	6	“000000″
X (Hexadecimal)	1	x’0…0″

3. Table types :- Table types are construction blueprints for internal tables that are stored in the ABAP Dictionary. When you create a table type in the ABAP Dictionary, you specify the line type, access type, and key. The line type can be any data type from the ABAP Dictionary, that is, a data element, a structure, a table type, or the type of a database table. You can also enter a predefined Dictionary type directly as the line type, in the same way that you can with a domain

Now, you must have got clear idea about “Data Types in the ABAP Dictionary”.

Data Types in the ABAP Dictionary