A statement error occurs when an error in executing a database statement occurs in a running program.

If such an error occurs, the database system cancels the incorrect statement and issues an error message. The program containing the error is terminated. Furthermore, the transaction is completely canceled in the database (rollback), an ABAP dump is issued, and a message is usually written to the system log.

A statement error can also occur if an extensive operation entirely fills up the rollback segment. The reason for such an error is generally incorrect programming.

The database administrator does not have to intervene in order to execute a recovery after a statement error.