ABAP Keyword Documentation → ABAP Glossary
alignment
Some data types, such as
numeric data types, other than p, and the
deep data types have specific alignment requirements that depend on the platform in question.
Fields in the memory that have one of these
types must begin at addresses that can be divided by 4, 8 or 16. In
Unicode systems,
data objects of
character-like data types are also located in storage addresses that can be divided by 2 or 4, depending on the
Unicode character representation. In a
structure or
substructure, the
component with the highest alignment requirement determines the alignment of the entire structure, whereby
alignment gaps may occur before or after components with alignment requirements.