ABAP Keyword Documentation →  ABAP − Release-Specific Changes →  Changes for Release 7.0 

Internal tables in release 7.0

For release 7.0, the functions of internal tables have been enhanced as follows:

1. Addition CASTING after ASSIGNING

2. Dynamic specification of the sort key in SORT

3. Optimization when specifying a WHERE condition

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

Modification 1

Addition CASTING after ASSIGNING

In all statements for processing internal tables, in which the addition ASSIGNING <fs> can be specified for the output behavior, it is now also possible to use the addition CASTING, which is familiar from the statement ASSIGN> ASSIGN, in order to cast a table row to the type of the field symbol.

Modification 2

Dynamic specification of the sort key in SORT

In the statement SORT itab, the sort key, sort direction, and the textual sorting can be specified in a new variant of the addition BY in a specific internal table otab of type ABAP_SORTORDER_TAB.

Modification 3

Optimization when specifying a WHERE condition

Until now, the optimization of table access when entering an opening segment of the table key using consistency queries linked together with AND was only possible for sorted tables and was performed by specifying a WHERE condition in the statements LOOP, DELETE and MODIFY. For release 7.0, this is now also performed for hashed tables. In hashed tables, however, the whole table key must be specified for the optimization to be effective.

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