This section describes the ABAP statements that you use to change the contents of variable fields. At the beginning of an ABAP program, its variables have a starting value, which you can set in the DATA statement. There are many different ways in which you can change the value of a variable; for example, using the user interface, Open SQL, or by assigning the values of data objects in your program to a variable. The most important statement for the latter method is MOVE. It has the same meaning as the equal sign (=). Most other value assignments are reduced internally to the semantics of the MOVE statement. This is particularly important in type conversions.

Another statement that you can use to pass values to variables (mainly to fill character fields) is WRITE TO.

Finally, there is the CLEAR statement, which allows you to reset a data object to the initial value appropriate to its type.