ABAP Keyword Documentation → ABAP - Reference → Data Interfaces and Communication Interfaces → ABAP and XML → asXML - Canonical XML Representation → asXML - Mapping of ABAP Data Types
asXML - Mapping of Elementary ABAP Types
The asXML representation of elementary ABAP types is used in XSL transformations and in Simple Transformations. In both cases, the elementary values or the elementary components of complex structures are converted in accordance with this mapping.
For elementary data objects with predefined ABAP types, the as representation is based on the canonical representation of
XML schema data types from
the namespace xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema", where dates and times are represented in accordance with ISO-8601 and binary data is represented in accordance with
Base64. The mapping of ABAP
types to the XML schema data types is not fully bijective, due to the different value ranges. For example,
you can specify a time zone for the XML schema data type xds:date, whereas this is not possible for the ABAP type d.
The following tables show a summary of the mappings:
Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54
Numeric Data Types
| ABAP Type | ABAP Representation | XML Schema Type | XML Representation |
|---|---|---|---|
b |
123 | xsd:unsignedByte | 123 |
s |
-123 | xsd:short | -123 |
i |
-123 | xsd:int | -123 |
p |
-1.23 | xsd:decimal | -1.23 |
decfloat16 |
123E+1 | precisionDecimal, totalDigits = 16 | 1.23E+3 |
decfloat34 |
-3.140...0E+02 | precisionDecimal, totalDigits = 34 | -314.0...0 |
f |
-3.140...0E+02 | xsd:double | -3.14E2 |
Note
The type precisionDecimal is not yet an official XML schema type.
Character-Like Data Types
| ABAP Type | ABAP Representation | XML Schema Type | XML Representation |
|---|---|---|---|
c |
" Hi" | xsd:string | _Hi |
string |
" Hello " | xsd:string | Hello |
n |
"001234" | xsd:string (pattern [0-9]+) | 001234 |
d |
"20020204" | xsd:date | 2002-02-04 |
t |
"201501" | xsd:time | 20:15:01 |
Byte-Like Data Types
| ABAP Type | ABAP Representation | XML Schema Type | XML Representation |
|---|---|---|---|
x |
ABCDEF | xsd:base64Binary | q83v |
xstring |
456789AB | xsd:base64Binary | RweJqw== |
Differences in Serialization
In serializations, ABAP values are converted to the appropriate character-like XML format. Deserializations operate in the opposite direction. Note the following differences to the usual conversion rules that apply in ABAP.
- For the serialization of decimal
floating point numbers, the same format as for their conversion to type
stringis generated.
- When data objects with the type
xare serialized, closing bytes with the value hexadecimal 0 are handled in the same way as closing blanks with data typecand are ignored.
- When the following ABAP data objects are serialized to asXML, partial checks are made to see whether the ABAP data object has a valid value:
- A data object with the type
ncan contain only numbers.
- A data object with the type
pmust represent a valid packed number.
- A data object with the type
dortcannot contain any leading or closing blanks or the corresponding separator ("-" or ":") It can contain parentheses, signs and the following operators:
Any violations of these rules raise handleable exceptions, some of which can be avoided by specifying a
transformation option after the OPTIONS addition of the CALL TRANSFORMATION statement.
Note
To check the validity of dates and times, you can use the domains
XSDDATE_D and
XSDTIME_T instead of the data types d and t.
Special Features of Deserialization
- For deserialization to decimal
floating point numbers, the conversion rule for source fields of the type
cis used.
- Serializations to an ABAP data object must retain the precision of the XML value:
- Numeric types cannot lose decimal places.
- In character-like or byte-like data types with fixed lengths
(
c,n,x), the target object must have enough places for the entire content, unless only leading and closing blanks in data typecand leading zeros in data typenare affected.
- Structures cannot be converted to elementary data objects.
- Deserializations fill data objects of the type
corxwith blanks or hexadecimal 0 on the right (as usual) if fewer characters or bytes are passed than can fit in the data object.
Any violations of these rules raise handleable exceptions such as CX_SY_CONVERSION_DATA_LOSS, some of which can be avoided by specifying a
transformation option after the OPTIONS addition of the CALL TRANSFORMATION statement.
Note
Exceptions from mappings cannot be handled directly. Instead, the exception CX_TRANSFORMATION_ERROR (or one of its subclasses) from statement CALL TRANSFORMATION can be handled. The attribute PREVIOUS then contains a reference to the original exception.
Example