Data Types

Data Types

Data types in ABAP are classified by structure and definition. Data types are either:

elementary (non structured) or structured

predefined or user-defined

Resulting from this, there are four classes of data types that are listed in the following table. The names of the predefined data types are fixed. The names of the user-defined data types are defined by the programmer in the program.

Data types in ABAP

	Predefined	User-defined
Elementary	C, D, F, I, N, P, T, X: ABAP contains eight predefined elementary data types. Elementary Data Types - Predefined	User-defined elementary data types are based on the predefined elementary data types. Elementary Data Types - User-defined
Structured	TABLE: This predefined structured data type is used only for the typing of formal parameters and field symbols.	Field strings and internal tables: These structured data types can be used for data objects and are user-defined. Structured Data Types

When working with data, it is important to know whether data types are compatible or not. For more information about this topic, see

Compatibility of Data Types.