ABAP Keyword Documentation →  ABAP - Reference →  Program Flow →  Expressions and Functions for Logical Expressions →  log_exp - Logical Expressions →  log_exp - Comparisons →  log_exp Comparison Rules →  log_exp - Comparing Internal Tables 

Comparing Internal Tables

This example demonstrates how internal tables are compared.

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

Source Code

    DATA: BEGIN OF line,
            col1 TYPE i,
            col2 TYPE i,
          END OF line.

    DATA: itab LIKE TABLE OF line,
          jtab LIKE TABLE OF line.

    DO 3 TIMES.
      line-col1 = sy-index.
      line-col2 = sy-index ** 2.
      APPEND line TO itab.
    ENDDO.

    MOVE itab TO jtab.

    line-col1 = 10. line-col2 = 20.
    APPEND line TO itab.

    IF itab > jtab.
      WRITE / 'ITAB >  JTAB'.
    ENDIF.

    APPEND line TO jtab.

    IF itab = jtab.
      WRITE / 'ITAB =  JTAB'.
    ENDIF.

    line-col1 = 30. line-col2 = 80.
    APPEND line TO itab.

    IF jtab <= itab.
      WRITE / 'JTAB <= ITAB'.
    ENDIF.

    line-col1 = 50. line-col2 = 60.
    APPEND line TO jtab.

    IF itab <> jtab.
      WRITE / 'ITAB <> JTAB'.
    ENDIF.

    IF itab < jtab.
      WRITE / 'ITAB <  JTAB'.
    ENDIF.

Description

Two standard tables itab and jtab are created. itab is filled with three rows and assigned to jtab. A further row is added to itab and the first logical expression returns that itab is bigger than jtab. After the same row has been added to jtab, the second logical expression returns that both tables are the same. Another row is added to itab and the third logical expression returns that jtab is smaller than itab. Next, a further row is added to jtab, the content of which is different from the final row of itab. The next logical expression returns that itab is not identical to jtab. The first table field where the contents of itab and jtab differ is col1 in the last row of the table - that is to say, 30 for itab and 50 for jtab. In the last logical expression, itab is therefore smaller than jtab.