Declarations

Declaration Contexts

Data types and data objects are declared for one of the following contexts using declarative statements or inline declarations:

• ABAP programs:

  Declarative statements in the global declaration section define data types and data objects that are valid during the runtime of the program and visible in the entire program.

• Classes:

  Declarative statements in the declaration section of a class define data types and data objects (attributes) of a class and define their visibility.

  • Instance attributes are valid during the lifetime of an instance of the class (object).

  • Static attributes are valid from the first time the class is accessed until the end of the program.

• Procedures:

  Declarative statements in a procedure define local data types and data objects that are valid during the runtime of the procedure and only visible there. Inline declarations declare data objects in operand positions within a procedure.

Declarative Statements and Inline Declarations

The most important declarative statements for data types and data objects (with virtually identical syntax) are:

• TYPES for data types

• DATA for variables

• CONSTANTS for constants

Furthermore, inline declarations using the operator DATA(…) are available, which are used to declare data objects in specific operand positions.

Example

Defines an elementary type t_dec2 for decimal numbers with two decimal places and declares data objects with this type.

               TYPES t_dec2 TYPE p LENGTH 8 DECIMALS 2.

DATA: distance TYPE t_dec2,
      weight TYPE t_dec2.
 
            

Example

Inline declaration of a target area wa when reading from an internal table itab.

               DATA itab TYPE TABLE OF line_type.

LOOP AT itab INTO DATA(wa).
  ...

ENDLOOP.