Specifying Offset Values for Data Objects

Specifying Offset Values for Data Objects

In ABAP, you can specify offset values for elementary data objects in all statements which process these data objects. To do so, specify the name of a data object in a statement as follows:

Syntax

<f>[+<o>][(<l>)]

The operation of the statement is performed for the part of the field <f> that begins at position <o>+1 and has a length of <l>.

If the length <l> is not specified, the field is processed for all positions between <o> and the end of the field.

In general, offset <o> and length <l> must be specified as unsigned number literals. Dynamic specification using variables is possible in the following exceptional cases:

assiging values using MOVE or the assignment operator
(see Assiging Values with Offset Specification).

assiging values using WRITE TO
(see Writing Values with Offset Specification).

Assiging fields to fields symbols with ASSIGN
(see Working with Field Symbols).

Passing data to subroutines in a PERFORM statement
(see Passing Data Using Parameters).

Offset specifications make sense with character fields, numeric text fields, hexadecimal fields, and date and time fields.

Do not use offset specifications with the numeric fields of types F, I, and P, or with structures. They cannot be used with literals or text symbols (for further information about text symbols, see Text Symbols).

DATA TIME TYPE T VALUE '172545'.
WRITE TIME.
WRITE / TIME+2(2).
CLEAR TIME+2(4).
WRITE / TIME.

The output appears as follows:

172545

170000

First, the minutes are selected by specifying an offset in the WRITE statement. Then, the minutes and seconds are set to their initial values by specifying an offset in the clear statement.