A data object is the application-specific instance of an archiving object, that is, an archiving object filled with concrete application data.The archiving object only describes the data structure, that is, it determines which data belong logically together, whereas the data object contains real data from the database, such as all table entries belonging to an FI document.

The ADK ensures that data objects are written sequentially to an archive file. All data objects in an archive file have the same structure, which is described in the archiving object.