Table Types

Table Types

A table type describes the structure and functional attributes of an internal table in ABAP. In ABAP programs you can reference a table type TTYP defined in the ABAP Dictionary with the command DATA <inttab> TYPE TTYP. An internal table <inttab> is created in the program with the attributes defined for TTYP in the ABAP Dictionary.

A table type is defined by:

its line type, that defines the structure and data type attributes of a line of the internal table
the access options to the data of the internal table
the management of the data in the internal table

The line type is created by directly entering the data type, length and number of decimal places or by referencing a data element, a structure or another table type.

The table type TABTYPE shown in the graphic can be used with the statement DATA <name> TYPE TABTYPE in ABAP programs to define an internal table <name>.

A local type <name> that takes on the attributes of type TABTYPE can be defined in the program with TYPES <name> TYPE TABTYPE.

How the contents of the internal table are managed and how the contents of this internal table are accessed are defined by the access mode, key category and key.

See also:

Creating Table Types